I like Kerry. I like Obama. I don't think they are lying to us about why we are about to bomb Syria

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. Agreed...as I can tell, the plan suffers from a lack of legitimacy and uncertain effectiveness

The huffing and puffing about the "real motives" and the "MIC" and similar nonsense is just that: childish nonsense.

For any military intervention to be legitimate, it needs UN Security Council approval. That's a high bar, because the Russians have every interest (save a moral one) in maintaining Assad in power and allowing him to do what he wants. It's not going to happen, and intervention should be shelved on that basis alone.

The effectiveness of intervention is also obviously an issue, and has not been demonstrated with any compelling arguments. I see effectiveness along two vectors: short term and geo-local effectiveness (i.e., in Syria, now) and long-term and abstract effectiveness: the NEXT person contemplating the use of chemical or biological weapons and how that person weighs his or her risks. Long-term effectiveness of this sort is easier for me to grok than the short-term effectiveness, which is complicated by the extremely complex conditions on the ground.

Finally, apart from basic legitimacy and practical utility, there is obviously a very real moral concern here. How can military intervention be more moral than doing nothing? I think that case is actually somewhat clear, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will ensue from my saying that. Allowing Assad to use these atrocious weapons with impunity is a moral wrong, and a fucked up one at that. Anyone arguing that point (it's none of our moral business, or, because we massacred Native Americans or Vietnamese, we are beyond moral responsibility) - anyone arguing such nonsense loses me at GO. But the choice isn't between military intervention and doing nothing. And that's where the morality of it gets fuzzier: I agree with those (like Maddow, for instance) who suggest that if there is a spectrum of options (albeit most practically bad), then we must exhaust those as a moral imperative before any military intervention.