Next in Line: Syria

Next in Line: Syria

Sabers have been rattling in Washington and the halls of Congress several months now for the United States to go to war with Syria to oust the Assad government for the benefit of the Syrian rebels.  

Senator John McCain took to the senate floor last March and made an impassioned plea for a US-led war effort against Syria, and for President Obama to commit himself to using force.

"The President must state unequivocally that under no circumstances will Assad be allowed to finish what he has started, that there is no future in which Assad and his lieutenants will remain in control of Syria, and that the United States is prepared to use the full weight of our airpower to make it so," said McCain

Well, now we learn that President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government. The order, approved earlier this year broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.

Of course, the full extent of clandestine support that agencies like the CIA might be providing remains unclear but apparently the United States is collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies near a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.

In my lifetime, which began just after the end of WWII, I’ve witnessed a series of never ending wars and conflicts from Korea to Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Grenada, Panama, Persian Gulf, Bosnia- Kosovo-Herzegovina, Afghanistan and Iraq.

All of them involved keeping some so-called “bad guys” from acquiring power or ousting a “bad guy” in power. I know for a fact that many American lives were sacrificed in those conflicts but that very little benefit accrued to the average American citizen. The American government, Democrats and Republicans alike will never learn that we gain nothing from these wars but always manage to lose plenty.

It’s the same old story. Assad, like Qaddafi in Libya, and all the other “bad guys” before him, doesn’t want to give up his power, nor do the many hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have benefited from his regime.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no foreign policy expert by any manner or means, but I can’t think of a single reason why my country should go to war with Syria or otherwise become involved in their civil war. If it is necessary for us to make war with Syria, then there are at least dozens of other countries we should be attacking as well.

Yes, I concede that Assad is a brutal dictator who is killing his own people and maybe he shouldn’t remain in power. But what are the rebels doing? Are they just sitting around singing Karaoke and playing tiddlywinks? Aren’t they killing their own people too?

Who are these Syrian rebel fellows anyway? Are they a bunch of nice people who seek nothing more than benevolence and goodwill for their countrymen? Or are they bad guys too seeking the political advantage for themselves and their cronies?

The latter is my guess, but sure, I admittedly don’t know. I’ll bet you money that President Obama doesn’t know either. I’ll bet Senator McCain doesn’t know.

Who the Hell knows?

I do know this: If the Tea Party, for example, or the Libertarians, or some other disgruntled segment of the American population started to seriously oppose the current political system in the United States; if they wanted to throw all the bastards out and start all over; and threatened to use force in their effort, there is absolutely no question in my mind that Obama and McCain, and all the other Republicans and Democrats in power right now would never go quietly.    

In such an event, the full force of the American government police and military forces would be unleashed upon the “traitorous rebels.” Blood would flow in the streets and the countryside. Americans would be killing Americans.

Why not? It’s happened before.  

Americans might someday again be next in line.