By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
There’s every indication that western powers may intervene in Syria by Labor Day, Save Jerseyans. American ships are in position to support a British-led assault from the air.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez (D-Dominican Republic) summed up the popular Washington consensus over the weekend by stating that he was “shocked and deeply concerned” over reported of chemical weapon attacks on civilian populations.
Aren’t we all, Bob!
Images of dead children on YouTube and CNN are chilling. What’s even more chilling? The prospect of the U.S. being drawn into another Middle Eastern conflict without (1) a plan or (2) a direct correlation to any vital American national interest.
It’s par for the course behavior in Obamaland.
The Administration’s infamous “lead from behind” strategy has severely damaged American credibility abroad since the “Arab Spring” quickly devolved into a series of seemingly endless tribal and religious conflicts in previously stable countries like Egypt. The President’s childlike belief in the Arab Spring’s potential ultimately proved no less absurd than his domestic supporter’s naive emotional investment in “hope and change.”
His approach to Syria has been no less coherent or constructive. After foolishly drawing a line in the sand over the usage of chemical weapons, President Obama leaves himself with few options now that the worst appears to have become a reality. Ground troops have already been ruled out for patently obvious reasons; a no-fly zone could destroy Assad’s air force but leave his deadly stormtroopers and artillery intact. That leaves airstrikes as the only viable option, and it’s an option which would prove less-than-decisive while simultaneously drawing us further into the conflict (see Libya).
And everything in the prior paragraph assumes that we actually want the rebels to win, Save Jerseyans. That remains an open question. Bob Menendez is saber-rattling as is John McCain, but as the Arizona Republican found out in the spring, we don’t really have a firm grasp on the identities of the rebels or their ideological allegiances. Assad may be an evil, murderous dictatorial thug, but how would it benefit America to see an Islamicist regime fill the breach?
We’ve been down this road before. Too often and too recently to blame ignorance as an excuse. Good intentions inevitably pave roads to fresh hells in an already hellish region. The United States complicates matters further by both (1) refusing to fight a “total war,” which we all know is the only humane/useful kind of war to wage, and (2) refusing to develop sufficient domestic energy resources to render the Middle East much less politically important.
This is our serially-committed mistake, Save Jerseyans, and Syria might just become the latest bad decision.
Meanwhile, back at home, the word on the street is that the Obama Administration might delay the Keystone pipeline yet again…
It’s serial-ously hard to believe, but here we go again…
