Could Syria Be Like Iraq (And Vietnam)?

In that we get lured into a stupid war based on phony intelligence? I don't think so, but it would be foolish to discount the possibility.

There are some obvious differences. Iraq was ruled by an evil dictator who was more or less keeping the peace in his own country and not threatening the US. Iraq turned out not to have chemical or nuclear weapons - despite a consensus opinion on the former and his dubious rumors on the latter. Syria too is ruled by an evil dictator and not directly threatening the US, but it clearly has chemical weapons and has used them, killing more than 1000 people. That evil dictator is alos engaged in a war on his own people which has killed hundreds of thousands. Bush wanted war at any cost - Obama clearly doesn't (my opinion, of course).

Oh, did I happen to mention some similarities too?

Whatever intervention Obama chooses, and I really think he has little choice, a bad outcome is likely. Obama apparently does not want to affect the course of the war, or so he says. In that case, don't do anything!! Killing a bunch of people to "send a message" is bullshit. That sort of BS is even worse than letting our credibility go to crap, and I do think that's a really bad choice too.

If Obama does do something, it should materially affect Assad's ability to wage war.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Libertarian: re-post

The most pointed critique of social security and liberalism in general is the libertarian critique. The problem with libertarians, for a liberal, is that we have too much in common. We both believe in individual rights, tolerance of individual differences, and dislike government prescription of religion. The basic difference, it seems to me, is the different answers we give to Cain's (with thanks to the Captain - my original version had the corpse asking the question!) famous question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That's not really my basic bitch against the libertarians though. My real complaint is the same as my complaint against most religion - its premise is a fraud. For those who can't stand to wait for the punchline, I believe that trying to implement libertarian principles leads to tyranny or social disintegration. Demonstrating that takes some historical (and pre-historical) context. For all but the last 15,000 or so of the 100,000 years the human spec
Read more

Uneasy Lies The Head

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ........... Shakespeare Henry IV, Part II. So it is with us and our slightly distant primate cousins , so it seems. A 9-year study of wild baboons in Kenya by Princeton University and the Institute of Primate Research may turn conventional assumptions of alphas males upside down. The study found that alpha males have high testosterone levels, which allows them to dominate other baboons, get access to more food, and attract better mates. This is expected. Surprisingly, though, the alpha males also have high levels of stress hormone glucocorticoid, which scientists measured from their feces samples. In fact, the stress of alpha baboons was on par with low-ranking baboons. The convention wisdom is that access to food and females provides life security and thus less stress for dominant males. Conversely, weak males who are constantly threatened by starvation and physical violence from stronger males are thought to be more stressed. The st
Read more

We Call it Soccer

The US played its best, and maybe only good game of World Cup, but lost thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by the Swedish keeper and the bizarre method soccer uses to settle ties when three US stars could not put the ball on frame from the 12 yard spot.  At the end it came down to a blocked shot that spun in by maybe a couple of centimeters. Well, that's football - too much like life.   Which brings me to a modest proposal.  Replace the thirty minute overtimes with as many 7-player 15 minute periods as needed to settle it.  Scoring should be much easier with fewer players.
Read more