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Originally Posted by zman
I hope congress doesn't pass Obama's plan to attack Syria for no reason and proves MLK wrong for once --
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.”
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I'm not sure I agree with 'for no reason". Gas attack killing thousands is reason enough to do something. Now what you need to do is more complicated and almost as complicated as the ground realities in Syria. Obama may have blocked himself into a corner with his red-line comments earlier and I do not see what a few token cruise missiles is going to have any effect other than to escalate an already chaotic situation. Bashar tried to play hard-ball like his dad but screwed it and his country royally. Now Syria is fast approaching Iraq II and the artificially constructed nation is seeing the chaos from sectarian and religious divisions - each party is being played by both external and internal players with an axe to grind (Russia, Iran, the US, Iraq, Israel et al ad infinitum ad nauseum).
The Washington Post had an interesting article on Syria - while the article was directed towards the American readership who may not be totally cognizant of the nuances of the Syrian crises, it is a fairly accurate and balanced account of it:
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9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask
By Max Fisher, Published: August 29 at 12:50
The United States and allies are preparing for a possibly imminent series of limited military strikes against Syria, the first direct U.S. intervention in the two-year civil war, in retaliation for President Bashar al-Assad’s suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians.
If you found the above sentence kind of confusing, or aren’t exactly sure why Syria is fighting a civil war, or even where Syria is located, then this is the article for you. What’s happening in Syria is really important, but it can also be confusing and difficult to follow even for those of us glued to it.
Here, then, are the most basic answers to your most basic questions. First, a disclaimer: Syria and its history are really complicated; this is not an exhaustive or definitive account of that entire story, just some background, written so that anyone can understand it.
read
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