beefy... I sincerely and honestly hope that we don't get involved in Syria. That's a fact. If, however, Ronald Reagan had said, in March of 1988, that Iraq had crossed a red line by using chemical weapons against the Kurds, I would have backed his play. If we tacitly condone the use of weapons the world had earlier decided we would not condone, then we take a huge step backward as humanity. I don't know how we stop Assad from using them, but I truly believe that the world needs to step up, together, and stop it. I do not think it makes any sense to go it alone if the world won't go with us, but for Obama to ask the world to stick to their treaties and stop the use of these weapons, I think that is a good thing to do.
Good summary, MM. War is horrible. Death is horrible. But - the world has said "chemical weapons are evil and banned".
I agree the 100,000 plus people killed by "conventional" weapons are also to be mourned. But the world hasn't banned conventional weapons; we have - all the countries, pretty much - banned chemical weapons.
Are we now to say "oops, we didn't mean it?" Then what happens re Iran and nuclear weapons?
I don't want to get involved in Syria either. And it's possible now we won't - it's possible now that our threats not only got Assad to admit he had the weapons, but maybe will give the world a way to get those weapons out of Syria, or at least under international control. Assad is pretty good at killing his people in other ways, so guess he won't miss them. But NO ONE wants those weapons to get into the hands of a bunch of rival factions, which could happen if Assad loses.
If we do bomb Syria, I can only hope we do it strategically - that it doesn't cause further repercussions -that we don't kill too many civilians - that it doesn't pull us in further.
Syria is an open wound in the world. I wish we could stop the fighting and somehow fix it. We can't. But maybe we can keep these chemical weapons from being used by either side. It's not much. But it's something.
And yes, Darla - all weapons are horrible; all deaths are to be mourned; but again - the world, in various treaties, have said that chemical weapons are even worse - probably because of the damage they cause to civilians and the way they can't be targeted. So do we follow the treaties or do we give up? And if we give up - does that mean we give up totally and all countries can have nuclear weapons as well?
I know that's outside the scope of this thread, so I'm ok with us not discussing that last point.