Why It's a Mistake to Conflate Iraq and Syria, Bush and Obama

[Vanje]

42. First off, you call opponents of your viewpoint,"ideologue, fringe Left".

Thats not likely to win any converts.

And then you dis my girl friend, Rachel Maddow, who is a staunch and solid liberal, who has a record for supporting Obama.

Assad is horrible.
Using chemical weapons on civilians is HORRIBLE.

But the dreadful situation in Syria, needs solutions other than our nation lobbing bombs at random into , yet another Middle-Eastern powder-keg of simmering instability.

It doesn't work.

Look at Iraq. WMD's or no, Saddam Hussein was a bastard. He's gone now (Yay us!) Thousands died, Thousands and thousands. Some our our people too. We have military members committing suicide. We have returning veterans with PTSD, neurological problems, physical problems....... and the Iraq is a mess.
The hearts and minds of Iraqis were not won. We spent enough money to provide healthcare for all Americans, and what did we get?
And Afghanistan.... That worked out well. We ruined lives of service men and women, drained our treasury, and We seated a government that exemplifies corruption.

And for all the blood and treasure we've spent, the people of Iraq and Afghanistan still dont seem to like us very much.
We've been drone-striking in Pakistan and Yemen..... and yeah, they just love us there. Are we killing people in Somalia yet? Its hard to keep up.

No. This is not the way. This does not help the suffering people in the middle east, and this does not forward any American interest, except , possibly for that of a few war profiteers , and some very nasty military contractors.


We, the People are tired of spending our young generation , and our treasury on shit that doesn't work.

The situation in Syria is awful.
But we know what doesn't work.
We want to help. We're decent that way.
But for Godsake, lets not do what we KNOW doesn't work.