I’ve incorporated a new phrase into my sparse Arabic vocabulary: Ana aasfe. I’m sorry. Seems I’m apologizing a lot of late to Lebanese who (usually loudly and forcefully) insist the Syrian civil war is the US’s fault. “Obama is a murderer!” bellowed one Lebanese friend. “This is all the fault of the US!” a local Lebanese politician exclaimed as he swept his arm over a field of Syrian refugees’ tents. Not that I am sorry for my country’s response to the Syrian civil war, I just don’t want to press the point when I’m sitting in a refugee camp inches from the Syrian border or accepting a host’s gracious hospitality. But, really, what are the choices here? Should we arm the rebels? “The idea that there’s a difference between the rebels and the terrorists is ridiculous,” says one Syrian pastor I speak with. “Two brothers go fight with the Free Syrian Army and another goes to fight with viagradosage-50mg100mg200mg.com al-Nusra [an al-Qaida affiliate]. There’s no distinction.” Who knows in whose hands US-supplied weapons could end up? Guns know no sides. Should we “take out” Bashar Assad, as one Lebanese friend suggested? Besides the fact that the US – in theory, at least – isn’t in the business of assassinating foreign heads of state, how would eliminating Assad resolve the current crisis? “It’s a multi-headed snake,” my friend’s wife responds, commenting on the conversation as she passes by to resume her gardening. Besides, I offer, look how successful Iraq is since the US “took out” Saddam a decade ago. Once heavy-handed dictators disappear, is the west ever satisfied with the forces that fill the power vacuums? The western concept of “democracy” is a messy, long process that outlasts http://howdoescialis-worklast.com/ our patience. Shifting red lines notwithstanding, the Assad administration’s use of chemical weapons heartburn and cialis on innocent civilians is unconscionable. Doctors Without purchase viagra in the uk Borders confirmed cialis4dailyusedosage 355 deaths; at least 54 of them are children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Young Victims of Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
Reported AP Photo/Local Committee of Arbeen as posted at NationalPost.com (http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/21/syria-government-uses-poisonous-gas-in-attack-that-kills-at-least-100-opposition-groups-say/)
if we further helped develop Syria economically – provide jobs, cialispharmacy-onlinetop.com education, hope to people in a country that was reeling from 25% unemployment and 30% inflation at a time when it accepted 1.2 million refugees from a US-decimated Iraq? (This is the equivalent of pouring a war-traumatized population the zomig free viagra sample pack canadian pharmacy size Texas into the US.) The cost of just one viagra generico of the US’s 400 B-61 nuclear warheads could provide school kits to 1 million Syrian children, with cash to spare. Books not bombs, hmmm, heard this before somewhere. Well, one thing I’m ana aasfe about: We don’t learn very quickly. # # # # # * According to UNOCHA (the UN agency responsible for coordinating humanitarian affairs), the US is by far the viagra free offer largest donor of reported humanitarian aid, twice that of Kuwait, 28 times best price canadian pharmacy more than Saudi viagra from canada legitimate msnbc Arabia and 6 times more than http://howdoescialis-worklast.com/ the UAR. Almost all of America’s aid is being funneled through UN agencies: UNHCR for refugees, UNRWA for Palestinian refugees, UNICEF and the World Food Programme. For a detailed spreadsheet, please see: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApF51UgS889tdGs1aGNnYWptYlJPM2JQbXJjTmd4WFE#gid=0
I am so weary of USA politicians posturing as the world’s policeman. And I’m disgusted that the USA spends billions of dollars in foreign aid while defunding domestic programs and shredding the safety net for poor and homeless and ill and undereducated at home. Meeting the needs of people living in the USA should be THE national interest, not people living in a foreign country even if they are suffering at the hands of a brutal regime. Our own people are suffering at home; let’s take care of them first. Thank you.
I hear you, Mikel! I also think the US has a responsibility to undo damage from 34 years of sanctions. If we could move away from a weapons-based military economy, we’d have the resources to feed, house, clothe and educate children all over the US and the world. Do you realize Halliburton alone made nearly $40 billion (that’s “billion” with a “b”) during the 10 years of this recent Iraq war? (Source: Financial Times of London: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7f435f04-8c05-11e2-b001-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2dN95woLP)
Imagine how many families could have been helped….
I agree with both of you on different levels. I agree with Miguel in that I believe war is never the answer. For the US to bomb Syria opens the door to humanitarian, political, and ideological issues that the US is ill prepared to respond to. How many civilians will be killed by such action? What is there to gain? Even if they were to “take out” Hassad, who would step up… and would it really end the country’s civil strife?
What would have happened if Great Britain had stepped in during the US Civil War in the 1860s, taken sides, and started bombing? Or worse yet, sent troops onto US soil? What if they had sided with the south, which was the equivalent at that time of the Syrian rebel forces? Would this have turned into a clusterf*ck, and eventually turned all of the US against Great Britain?
How can the US expect ANY positive outcome from tampering with another country’s political dynamics? Unless, of course, the flow of oil from that country has been disturbed, thus putting at risk the cushy way of life for Americans? (the hidden reason behind the trillion dollars pissed away in Iraq and Afghanistan).
Hopefully, one day, the US will be led by someone who has the BALLS to say, “We are no longer the so-called peacekeepers of the world”. And then, lead Congress to a redistribution of defense funds toward more benevolent use. (Your point, Kelly). It would take only a fraction of the US defense budget to solve hunger not just in the US, but worldwide.
Yeah. good luck with that.
As hard as it is to face, we have no business interfering in another country’s struggles to close a 2000 year gap. Of course, I care what those people suffer. But I also care that, while they struggle, we take care of our own problems. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Our Congress cant seem to function except in adolescent obstruction. Our educational systems are falling apart, etc. And then the military industrial complex and the military themselves want billions to “police ” the world. Heck. They just want the money. I,m tired of violence. It is time to stop what we ‘he been doingb
As I was saying, it is time to ask ourselves who we are and get on with what we stand for.