Re: Syria. Look at it this way.

[markpkessinger]

33. I wouldn't call the OP a "comparison"

I think the OP is simply making the point that from the outside, it is virtually impossible to know the precise forces and dynamics at work in another country's civil conflict. The OP points out that our own Civil War likely looked very different at the time to those outside of this country than it did to those who were here at the time, and also different from how it looks to us, having benefit of historical hindsight.

I don't think the OP is suggesting for one minute that Assad is Syria's Abraham Lincoln. To be sure, he is a brutal dictator. But here's the thing: the opposition consists of militant Islamists with Al Qaeda elements embedded among them. There are frankly no "good guys" on either side of this conflict.

But hey, if we want to create, as we have in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet another breeding ground for terrorists determined to target the U.S., then by all means the way to do it is to intervene in this conflict. Taking sides in another country's civil conflict is a bit like intervening in someone else's domestic dispute: when it is all said and done, no matter how it turns out, BOTH parties will resent you for meddling in their affairs.