Syria

The Syrian Civil War has gone on since March 15, 2011 as an outgrowth of the Middle Eastern movement known as Arab Spring. It is an ongoing conflict between forces attempting to oust the Ba'ath government and forces loyal to that government. The protesters are demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. His family has held the presidency since 1971 and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party has held power since 1963. The Syrian Army was deployed in April 2011 to quell the protests and fired on demonstrators across the country. It has become an armed rebellion with opposition forces composed mainly of defected soldiers and civilian volunteers. They appear to continue to have no central leadership. The conflict is taking place in cities and towns across the country with no controlled fronts. In late 2011 the Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra was having growing influence in the opposition forces. In 2013 Hezbollah entered the war in support of the Syrian army. The Syrian government is supported by Russia and Iran while Qatar and Saudi Arabia provide weapons to the rebel forces. In order to clarify who the players are Jabhat al-Nusra is an Al Qaeda associate operating in Syria. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations in December 2012. Hezbollah is a Shi'a Islamic militant group and political party based in Lebanon. It is regarded as a resistance movement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim world. The United States, U.K., Canada, the European Union and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah receives training, support and weapons from Iran and political support from Syria. Hezbollah has called for the destruction of the state of Israel. The death toll in this conflict surpassed 100,000 in June 2013. About half the deaths have been civilians. The U.N. reports that 4 million Syrians have been displaced and 1.8 million have fled to other countries.

It is clear given the evidence gathered from various sources including U.N. inspectors, Doctors Without Boarders, the governments of Britain and France, the government of Turkey, Israeli intelligence forces, Russian Foreign Ministry are among the groups who agree that chemical weapons have been used in Syria. The question of who used them remains unresolved for some of these organizations. The United States claims to have intercepted telephone communications between Syrian Army and government officials that indicate government forces used chemical weapons. This raises a question in my mind. How fucking stupid are these people? Haven't there been enough news reports over the past few years regarding the United States Government's ability to intercept telephone and other electronic communications? President Obama indicated on several occasions that the use of chemical weapons in this conflict would be a "game changer". He now says the situation is going to require "American attention". We have moved naval warships in the area to allow responses to include the use of Tomahawk cruise missiles. We also have several military bases with aircraft capable of striking inside Syria in that area of the world. The United Kingdom would like a U.N. Security Council resolution approving the use of force but since Russia and China are permanent members and have veto power that is unlikely to occur.

So what should we do? When the United States was involved in its Civil War other nations were advised to stay out of the fray. They had no business getting involved in what we felt was an internal matter. It was brother fighting brother. When you get involved in those battles usually the brothers unite and fight you. Would this happen in Syria. It would appear based on the groups involved that neither sides is a friend of the United States. At the same time it would seem like a bad idea to have a group like Hezbollah on one side or Jabhat al-Nusra in possession of chemical weapons. We accused Iraq of having chemical weapons and spent several trillion dollars finding out they didn't. We will continue to pay the price for that error in judgment for decades to come. If you wonder if that is true, our Civil War ended 148 years ago. We are still paying veteran's benefits to relatives of survivors of that war. While the expense is only a few thousand dollars it still goes on. Experts indicate we cannot bomb the chemical weapon stockpiles because doing so would contaminate a large area. We would also be unlikely to destroy all of them and some could fall into the hands of terrorist groups. My recommendation at this time is to sit this one out. Let these groups kill each other for as long as it takes. Whatever action we take will make us an enemy. Our inaction will also make us enemies. The potential loss of life of American service men and women in a conflict where both sides are unfriendly to us makes it hard to see any potential upside in our involvement.