Why a defeat in Syria would come about in the long term
Barry Rubin's written about why there's opposition to US intervention in Syria:
It’s really pretty simple. The American people understandably don’t want to go to war with Syria — not to mention with Syria’s patron, Iran — and especially not for the goal of putting the Muslim Brotherhood and murderous Islamists into power there. Going to war is a serious matter, to say the least. There’s no assurance how long it will take, how many lives it will cost, and what turns it may take. And the Middle East has just had several examples of these wars.Nobody sane should have to ally themselves with bigoted jihadists if that's what he's saying, even if they were the last "ally" on earth. Just like nobody should have to ally themselves with nazis, or even communists. The American public is right to oppose intervention in Syria if the end result is putting an entity like the Muslim Brotherhood into power. This might've even been what's become of Iraq in all the time since Saddam was deposed, mostly because the Religion of Peace wasn't opposed by the allies. Food for thought.
Iraq and Afghanistan cost a lot of money and lives as they extended for a much longer time than had been expected. In addition, they derailed the Bush administration’s electoral fortunes and domestic programs. With the main emphasis of the Obama administration being a fundamental transformation of America, such distractions are not desired.
There is one other important consideration: the Obama administration does not accept the traditional diplomatic and great power strategies. It believes that it can reconcile with Islamist states, it does not comprehend deterrents, it does not keep faith with allies, and it does not believe in credibility, the belief that only power exerted can convince a foe of seriousness.
Of course, that wouldn’t rule out a one-time targeted attack. But even if that were to be done, is America going to fight a full-scale war on the ground with allies–including al-Qaeda –which will never be satisfied and will always be eager to stab them in the back?
Labels: Afghanistan, dhimmitude, iran, Iraq, islam, jihad, political corruption, syria, terrorism, United States, war on terror
