Did I just stop by DU and find people PUSHING for war against Syria?

[MADem]

175. al Assad is no Saddam. Saddam's population was pacified and cowed, even those who opposed him.

If he were so stupid as to force children to protect his WMD, how long do you think he'd hang on to power in his own country? This isn't "us agin' them" in Syria, it's a civil war with chemical weapons. Saddam wasn't dealing with insurgency from within.

But -- and this is pretty much a war planning 101 lesson -- no one would go in with a cruise missile to a heavily populated area to blow up a CW cache. So rest easy about "big fireballs" in "apartment blocks." It wouldn't accomplish the intended mission. There are easier ways to bend an adversary to do your bidding.

Example: Take out the airfield where al Assad keeps his presidential plane. Take out the plane, too. Take out his helo, the fuel facility where he fuels his plane, and crater a few runways so they're unusable. Now, it's harder for Bashir to move around.

Then lay down the law--Bashir, you're going to let the Blue Helmets in to do a peacekeeping mission to destroy those weapons, and you're going to do it now. The international community has spoken. He says no? Take out a few more airfields, blow up a few more planes. Maybe hit a couple of those remote bunkers--or those other "facilities" he is building--way out in the desert on that lonely road in the middle of nowhere that snakes towards The Lebanon. Take his ass out of the sky. Reduce the number of available weapons he has to prosecute his little civil war. What does this do? It levels the playing field for the insurgents. He won't want that. Better for him to take the CW piece off the board than upset the balance of power.

Of course, those mendacious Russians (who probably supplied the CW in the first place) will do everything they can to block the UN, so this might be an exercise in futile wishing and hoping. More properly, that mendacious PUTIN--who has been on the wrong side of history on most major issues of late--will do everything he can to thwart international will.... so what's one more affront?

Sometimes I wonder about people who can see kids, poisoned and dying, who say "Eh...it's too hard. Do NOTHING. Look away! Not MY problem--I'm a peacemaker!!! Don't even TRY. It's just a few dozen kids and their families...people we don't KNOW...turn that video OFF!"