SHOULD WE BOMB SYRIA?
A cranky opinion for
Just a cranky opinion re-run from September 2013. Doesn't seem like much has changed, including my opinion. If Russia wants to try and sort stuff out in Syria, have at it.
The following is the opinion of a cranky old man. Opposing opinions are welcome, wrong but welcome, and please…no name calling. That means you, you big stupid head!
Well Syria, now you have done it. You used chemical weapons on your own people and now to teach you a lesson, we have to drop some bombs and some tomahawk missiles on your ass!
Or do we?
I am clearly not an expert in world diplomacy, and especially not an expert on countries and cultures in the Middle East.
I do know this; they hate the USA, they have always hated the USA and they will always hate the USA. Give them money…they hate us. Give them food…they hate us. Send them technology…they hate us.
If we bomb Syria, if we help overturn the Assad regime, a new group of people that hate the USA will take over, and a new group of fanatics will murder and torture their own citizens, because they are uncivilized, backward thinking fanatics.
Everyone in the Middle East?
No, just the ones that are corrupt and evil and currently capable of rising to power.
Look, we tried to keep communists out of South Viet Nam because our leaders told us if we did not, then all of Asia would fall to the communists like a row of dominos.
Maybe our hearts were in the right place, maybe we thought we were saving the world from communism, but:
We lost 50,000 soldiers with 150,000 wounded. North Viet Nam lost 1,000,000 lives, many were civilians. The south suffered 150,000 deaths. We sprayed Agent Orange to destroy vegetation; it also destroyed as many as 400,000 lives and caused as many as 500,000 birth defects.
The South fell, and yet it did not set off a string of dominoes. I think maybe we screwed up. I was young, I bought the domino theory. I was wrong.
Iraq invaded Kuwait, we stepped in and beat Saddam Husain back…then we left. That was probably the right thing to do. Best as I can tell Kuwait still hates us.
We went into Afghanistan to root out Al Quida and the Taliban to send a message that you cannot invade our country with impunity. Probably the right thing to do, but then we hung around too long. We thought we could make things better for the people of Afghanistan. Probably a mistake. We are in the process of leaving. Best I can tell they still hate us.
We went into Iraq again and got rid of a despicable tyrant. We were told they had weapons of mass destruction. We did not find any…kind of like the domino thing. I was in favor of this invasion at the time. I believed the intelligence about those weapons of mass destruction. I think I was wrong. Lots of our men were killed. Lots of our men were wounded. Best I can tell the people of Iraq still hate us.
We give aid to Egypt every year for the last zillion years. Millions or billions of dollars every year. That country seems to be a mess. Best I can tell they still hate us.
Now we are faced with Syria. The dictator of Syria is killing his own people. He is evil. We are told that it is imperative that he be stopped. We warned him about using chemical weapons and he ignored us, now he must be punished. Our intelligence tells us that he used these weapons and if we do not make him pay then other countries (Iran) will be embolden.
I don’t know. Sounds to me like dominos and WMD’s. I don’t know who to believe any more, but I am tired of losing brave young men with no apparent benefit to anyone. Evil people just fill evil voids, and best I can tell the rest of the Middle East will still hate us.
I think we should just try doing nothing for once. Let these evil people kill each other. The innocents will be killed whether we bomb Assad or not, and if overthrown, chances are the people who overthrow him are still going to hate us.
We have one friend in the Middle East. The only real Democracy. The only country in the Middle East without any oil and yet it has the most successful economy in the region.
Israel!
I say we draw the line at protecting the interests of Israel. Support Israel; best I can tell they still like us.
The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky.
I've met a few Egyptians and they seemed to love America, but maybe they hated Egypt and that's why they are here.
ReplyDeleteI think you should leave Syria alone, sit back and watch, see how things pan out. If that so-and-so with the chemical weapons kills everybody off, that'll be the end of it. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteYou've got an awful lot of people hating you. Your country, not you personally.
If they carry on killing each other the problem might be solved. We can but hope!
ReplyDeleteIt's all very mind boggling to me.
ReplyDeleteTo me, too!!
DeleteI agree with you Cranky. Should have never set foot there. Well to take out Bin Laden, but that's it. He should have been dead the day after 911. Could have made Afghanistan a parking lot the day after too, and then be gone. Money should never go to these countries. We won't take care of our vets here and we're dumping money left and right there. We could balance our federal budget. That would be a good thing. All we're getting is more and more middle eastern folks who hate us moving here.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day. ☺
I grew up with several families of Syrians who had emigrated years before. They were excellent farmers and ranchers and the girls I went to school with were beautiful. As for Israel, Netanyahoo doesn't seem to like us and I'm not real fond of him. But my granddaughter (who is not Jewish) won a trip there right out of high school and ended up spending several years there and loved it.
ReplyDeleteA toughie for sure. We have some precedent for our bombing (support for the 'freedom fighters') the Assad regime and ISIS. The Kennedy and Reagan doctrines somewhat cover it, as does the Clinton doctrine. In other words we've done stuff like this before. As to the people we're 'helping' liking us, that's never been part of the decision-making process; the doctrine has been applied on perceived need. The Clinton doctrine seems closest, using Bosnia as an example.
ReplyDeleteIsolationist policies have never worked out well for us since 1900, when transatlantic cables were laid for telegraph....we suddenly knew when things were happening, not weeks later.
Were we to do nothing, pull out of the Middle East, how exactly would we do that? I think we can agree we have some interests in the area, and would like some say in what happens there (oil, travel through the Suez canal, etc), how do we continue having that 'influence' when we pull out of their internal affairs?
It's telling that Henry Kissinger, the Master of Intervention, was asked some years ago what we could do in the Middle East, referring then to whatever the issue of the day was.....his reply: 'Nothing'. When Henry says 'nothing', we're in deep doo doo.
"I think we should just try doing nothing for once. Let these evil people kill each other. The innocents will be killed whether we bomb Assad or not, and if overthrown, chances are the people who overthrow him are still going to hate us."
ReplyDeleteI think you nailed it with that one short paragraph. They (the masses, not necessarily those whose palms we are greasing) hate us. The tribes and clans there hate each other. There is no way to please even a slight majority there. I say just let nature take it's course and let them whack each other. And while Israel is certainly not a bunch of choirboys, they are still the closest friends we have in the region, so I agree, support Israel.
What you say is certainly true, but then much of our problem in the Middle East is failed foreign policy and blind devotion to Israel. The United States claims to want to spread Democracy but historically this isn't true. Actually, we love dictators so long as they support the USA. We supported the coup that brought the Shah of Iran to power and continued supporting him after he unleashed his secret police on his own people. The same is true with so many other countries. The map of the Middle East was drawn up by the winners of WWI, a map that disregarded the cultural ties binding people together, and so the Kurds ended up in three separate countries. Our hands are not clean when it comes to the Middle East, and we're now seeing the consequences of our mistakes.
ReplyDeleteAs for Syria, let the Arab nations, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, deal with it.
I feel we should leave them alone to deal with their own country. I'm tired of the United States meddling with every other nation out there, trying to "fix" things and whatnot. It never does any good. Like you say, they hate us regardless. I think the only worry would be that by leaving them alone, we might be allowing an evil power to get bigger and bigger, kind of like we let Hitler's power get bigger and bigger.
ReplyDeleteWhat frightens me the most is that your 2 year old post is still very relevant. Not much has changed. Carter's dealings with Iran taught me that one can not deal with middle eastern countries rationally. They do not react to logic or sense and sadly do not seem to honor their word. I agree with doing nothing. We can't make a difference and it will only cost lives and money. Goodness, where did my cup half full go?
ReplyDeleteI am quite ignorant in these matters. Who made us the boss of the world? I'm all for staying home and putting our head in the sand.
ReplyDeleteOver my head. Everything. But your mention of giving money to people who hate us?....why do we keep sending it to Pakistan who is still holding that doctor who helped us get Bin Laden? What's so hard about "no doctor, no money!"
ReplyDeleteThis is a very difficult subject to comment on. America came to the rescue of Europe in WW2 and that was probably the greatest thing that America has ever done. And even then it was a difficult decision.
ReplyDelete