This Modern World: And Away We Go -- - Nothing Says "We Care" Like A Tomahawk Missile Strike

[ChaoticTrilby]

68. I have a question about that.

The President has stated that he does not intend to have Assad assassinated. This indicates that the targets of the missiles would be soldiers and their bases. People live near these bases, usually, and become collateral damage of such missile strikes. This has always been the case, no matter how careful the attacking forces are. The very crime that we are punishing (chemical weapons used on civilians) indicates that Assad does not care about his people. Presumably, this means he doesn't care much about his soldiers either and most likely sees them as tools. Assad does not care about the people that our missiles would be hurting.

With that in mind, how would this punish him? It sounds to me like it would really just be punishing Syrian soldiers and civilians, none of whom Assad cares about, if his actions are any indication. Likely, most of the evil dictators in the world feel the same way about their people and would not be deterred. Thus, you'll have a whole lot of ordinary people hurt and will make the U.S. look nearly as bad as the Syrian government - and a whole lot more self-righteous - which may very well result in more enemies for America. Among the Syrian people. This whole thing sounds like the equivalent of punishing a stranger for attacking others...by going and hurting those victims in a different way. It makes no sense to me.

So, to emphasize the point, how will this punish Assad?

EDIT: To add, you might bring up that this would also damage his facilities and cost him money. However, do you think that something so small would really be worth the inevitable havoc it would wreak on the surrounding populace? There really might be a better way to take money from him than that.