The SoapBoxers

Image via Wikipedia

Why Syria, why now?

All of last week the various news sources have been banging away at President Obama about his failure to intervene in the violent uprising in Syria.  The regime of Syrian president al-Assad has no defense for slaughtering their own people.  This has been going on for quite a while, so the question is why now?

The Egyptian Example

When the Egyptians rose up against tyranny, the world stood by and let the Egyptians sort out their problems.  This has work well, with no foreign interests mucking up the works.  What ever solution they choose, be it a western style democratic republic or a religious autocracy or another tyranny, is will be their choice.  Many political analysts have criticized this lack of intervention.  They each have their own solution to the problem.  Most of these solutions are clothed in the ideal that they are for the good of the Egyptian people, but with little effort, these solutions are exposed as meeting the agenda of the proposer.

The Libyan Example

In Libya, the Europeans and the United States joined in to supply weapons and provide air support including bombing raids.  There was no perceivable reduction in blood shed compared to Egypt.  In fact, based on population, it could be argued that the blood shed was worse with outside intervention.  As the situation in Libya stands now, it appears that the chosen group has prevailed.  As people who are accused of supporting the old Gaddafi regime are executed, the world will have to figure out if they like the group that they supported.

The Syrian Example

Syria is now in the throws of a civil war.  There have been horrible incidents of blood shed and other atrocities.  There have been calls for the Arab League (a body that Syria is a member) to enforce their rules for the protection of civilian populations from attack.  The League has done little except monitor and document the violations of the basic responsibilities of leadership by the Syrian Government.  The United Nations has been called upon to intervene.  Determining the winners and losers in civil wars is not the prerogative of the UN.  And then there is the drum beat for American intervention.

Taken in context of the other uprisings in the Arab world, intervention by any outside entity would be a mistake.  Adding in the conflicts that America is currently engaged in and the reduction of our military readiness as proposed by the Secretary of Defense, American intervention can only be seen as ridiculous.  If the United States is to act as the police force of the world, the defense budget will have to double not be cut in half.

And then there is Iran

Another topic that has filled the airways is the suggestion that Israel may attack the nuclear facilities of Iran.  There have been many reports about how bad that would be and how America should stop the Israelis.  The main reason is because there may be retaliation by Iran within the boarders of the United States.  There are so many interesting spins in that logic.  First of all, if you back away from the bully because of what he might do, then he has already won and you should just give him your lunch money.  Secondly, the press and the experts have apparently forgotten that Israel and Iran are at war.  They have been since 1967 when Iran declared war on Israel.  No peace treaty or even talks have taken place.  If a state of war exists, what right does the United States have to tell Israel how to prosecute that war?  It is on par with the United States telling England not to bomb Berlin during WWII because there were German operatives in America who could do bad things.

For thirty years, Iran has been trying to get a nuclear bomb.  During those years there have been various efforts to prevent that development by the world community.  When they promised to stop, the sanctions were lifted.  When they threw out the UN inspectors, there were loud complaints.  When they let the inspectors back in and claimed they had made great progress, but only for civilian energy use, the world sighed in relief that they had stopped working on a bomb.  Now, the Iranians are building secure, deep bunkers to build bombs.  The Israelis are rightfully concerned since the current Iranian government has stated that their primary goal is the elimination of Israel.  The rest of the world can laugh that off as rhetoric, but the Israelis have to think about there own preservation.