Once in a great while, we find that the time for talk is
over, and the time for action arrives. As ineffective as it was from a military
standpoint, the attack on the Syrian air base in retaliation for the use of
chemical weapons, apparently by the Assad regime, was necessary.
Over the years, I have become tired of all the arguments why
we couldn’t do anything about Syria. Here are just a few:
1.
It’s too complicated.
2.
It’s none of our business.
3.
It’s too expensive.
4.
It’s just Iraq all over again.
5.
It’s unconstitutional.
6.
We did nothing in Rwanda while hundreds of
thousands died.
7.
It’s supposed to be about ISIS.
8.
Assad’s awful, but it would be worse without
him.
9.
We’ll piss off Russia and Iran…and the latest,
10. Trump
did it to appear decisive and un-Obama-ish.
But we have been living with the price of non-involvement
for six years now, and the Assad regime has only become stronger, with a little
help from its friends. Meanwhile, we
have the worst refugee crisis since World War II. I can’t tell you how many
nights on CNN were consumed years ago with reports about Assad’s army shelling
civilian populations, with the world saying, “Ain’t that a shame?”
Sometimes, the military “messages” we send accomplish little
on the ground, but the fact that we send them shows that we’re paying
attention. Maybe it’s the 2x4 blow on the noggin that the stakeholders in the
region need and even expect from us. It’s often the only language they
understand. Syria is a terrible, complicated, bloody mess, but the world will
sort it out eventually, simply because we will realize there is no other
choice.
