I don't give a shit about Rand Paul, or Obama's political standing, or House GOP motivations.

[beerandjesus]

107. Funny, I thought it was the pro-war guys who kept calling Assad "Hitler".

In fact, in terms of what we can expect by way of outcome, this is exactly like Iraq.

1. We are inserting ourselves into a civil war.

2. The war is basically bad guys against bad guys. Whichever side wins, and regardless of whom we supported, we can expect the victors to be hostile to the US.

3. The strongest players among the rebels are known to be jihadis.

4. The people whose families are killed by "just a few cruise missiles" are not going to care about abstract notions of enforcing international norms.


In fairness, this is different from Iraq in two important ways:

1. Obama is not lying to us about his motivations.

2. There is already a civil war in Syria. We started the civil war in Iraq by toppling the government there.


But a few months out, the situation is going to look damn similar. Now, if you could persuade me that there would be some sort of benefit to lobbing "just a few cruise missiles", you might change my mind. But even if it stops there, I do not see how it helps the situation for the Syrians or for us; however, "just a few cruise missiles" will certainly guarantee that there will be at least a few more people in th world who hate the United States.