SYRIA “HYSTERIA” => ATTACK OR NOT? ===> POLL @ BOTTOM OF POST

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I don’t even pretend to have mastered all of the “geopolitical” ramifications of targeting Syrian military assets and using tomahawk cruise missiles to eliminate those assets.  At first blush, you’d have to conclude that doing so would simply stir up a hornet’s nest in that region of the world, what with all of the competing forces at odds with one another in such a very small geographical area.

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What I would like to hear is the cold, hard, dry analysis of what will most likely happen if Bashar al Assad is allowed to continue to claim stewardship to a large arsenal of weaponized chemical agents.  Is this a case for pure containment or have we already passed the point of no-return with this blood-thirsty, tin-horn dictator.  Where does one actually start to even begin the process of de-fanging Bashar, if that is even possible or feasible.  Any clear-eyed assessment of the Syrian situation would have to conclude at the very outset that there are an awful lot of “moving parts” at work here.

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On top of that, the United States armed Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons which  Saddam then used extensively against Iraq.  Russia used chemical weapons in their 9-year war with Afghanistan and again in their battle to subdue Chechnya.  Where was the world’s condemnation in either of these two cases?

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We have a civil war occurring in Syria (just as we did in Iraq) and there simply are no clear viable choices, only the lesser of evil ones.  That’s what we’re really faced with here.  Perhaps the only option available now is to throw our lot in with the most meritorious rebel groups and supply them with a large enough arsenal to force Bashar to come to the negotiating table and submit to a power transition.

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What I see happening, ultimately, is President Obama initiating limited but quick and punishing military strikes against the Assad regime but then expeditiously funneling large quantities of arms and munitions to those meritorious rebel forces with the hope that the military strikes have more than evened the playing field to provide the rebels a strong enough foothold on the battlefield to eventually, and sooner than later, overthrow the Assad dynasty.

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The only saving grace with that outcome would be that the rebel groups, while not appreciably better than the Assad government, would at least refrain from using chemical weapons.  That might be reason enough to rain missiles down on Syria.

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What do you think?

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