So I asked my friends from Syria about my "I support intervention" stance. [View all]

[IdaBriggs]

At least one person I usually respect has a different opinion, and while the nitwits insisting I am a pro-Bush pro-Iraq war monger who hates the troops and supports murder while living in a Hollywood fantasy land because I am an al-Quaida cheerleader who doesn't know how to use criticsl thinking skills and hates 'Murika (you get the idea ) are being over the top in their outrage, realistically it is a message board, and sometimes a good old fashioned flame war happens with controversial topics.

Anyway, the thread has generated hundreds of replies, and most of them are derogatory and disagree with my stance. Since most of the opinions are repetitive (see why I hate 'Murika as defined above ) I thought I would share this post where people might actually be able to read it.

To be fair, I am a pretty busy person, and most of my opinions have been formed through my horror of children being killed and my social network; I get most of my news from DU, but my "Middle East" policy thoughts are heavily influenced by my social circle which includes a guy who served in the Israeli military with advanced degrees in the history and politics of the region, dear friends who visit family in Egypt (siblings have participated in the street demonstrations there), my Iraqi refugee neighbors, and the family who provide child care for my children who are from Syria, among others.

If you are confused by all of this, I live in southeastern Michigan, which has one of the largest populations of Muslims in the country, and my children went to a Muslim preschool. (No, we are not Muslim.)

So I want Assad gone. As I said, I was pretty surprised by the venom my post received, so I decided to double check on the propriety of my stance when I picked up my kids after work.

I asked the (Syrian) family who run the place if I was wrong. They started laughing. No, they told me. The US needs to intervene. They hold no hope that Assad will be removed - they are more realistic than I am. But Ahmad's brother lives in Damascus, and he described in emotional terms how his brother was awakened in the middle of the night, went out on his balcony on the fourth floor, and watched the missiles fly over head that carried the chemical weapons that landed 7 km/5 miles (he used both measures so I could understand how close his brother was) that killed the children. He said that it isn't 1,300 dead from the attack - it is between 5,000 and 6,000.

I asked them (one of his daughters was in the room) if they were afraid of someone worse taking over.

They started laughing. "What worse can someone do?" they asked me. And then they tried to explain just how completely messed up things are there.

They support intervention. I am their friend, and I support it, too.

To some folks here on DU, that makes me an Evil Person. I am sorry you feel that way. I like to think it isn't true, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

What I want will probably not happen the way I want it. I accept that. I still support intervention and I pray that Obama and his leadership team will make good decisions for the benefit of the Syrian people.

They say we are all within dix degrees of seperation of each other. My children spend all day with a woman (Ahmad's youngest daughter) whose uncle watched missiles fly overhead the other night that killed children I have never met. I refused to look at the Facebook pictures of the horror posted by their family members who took them. I was brought to tears by his story of his five year grand-niece whose friends are dead, who is still trying to grapple with the fact she isn't.

These are not things I want anyone to have to deal with, and I want Assad out of power. I would like the people who committed such atrocities held accountable.

And I don't want other people to live through such horror filled nights as the brother of the man I trust to watch over my children.

Flame away, DU. I stand by my position.

Because while some folk really think it is all about being an ignorant al-Quaida loving war mongering moron, for me it is about "not letting tyrants slaughter people."