Reality Check

            Make no mistake about it, whatever the emotional response (see: Getting Syria’s) to Syria’s gassing of hundreds of its citizens, a military response from us is unwarranted.  Here’s why:

1. A missile strike on Syria would kill Syrians in order to prevent the killing of Syrians.  Does that make sense?
2. Say we were having a civil war in America, maybe between the well-armed 1% and the rag-tag 99%.  Who among us would like the United Nations, or any member nation, to drop bombs in our country?
3. An international treaty exists that declares the use of chemical weapons, even in war, unacceptable.  Almost none of the parties to this treaty wish to shed one dollar to enforce it.
4. Syria is not a party to the treaty—never signed it.  The world has known that they HAVE chemical weapons for decades.  Nobody cared enough to act.  Meanwhile, would YOU like to be held accountable for observing the terms of agreements to which you never agreed?
5. The law of unintended consequences (think Murphy’s Law), by which we have been jostled in Iraq and Afghanistan, may provide destabilizing, entangling and catastrophic consequences we don’t anticipate.  We don’t fear other nations, or terrorists.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fear our greatest enemy: stupidity.
6. Syria is a sovereign nation, just in case that means anything.

I’ve missed several cogent points, but you get the idea.  Around here, emotions aside, we think America should use its missile money to help refugees and their host countries.