I wish it were as simple as what you stated. The fact is, there are so many factions all with differing objectives in Syria it’s hard to know up from down. If we had a strong leader who had come up with a coherent plan years ago, this would have been resolved long before Russia got involved late last year. Putin saw our feckless leader and the continuing weakness of his position and saw an opportunity.
Years ago (like 2013) when Obama drew his line in the sand and Assaad crossed it, I would have supported a strong leader with concrete objectives and a plan put in place to resolve the crisis. Alas, we did not have that then and we do not have that now. So because we don’t and I see no good by us becoming more embroiled, I can’t support further involvement in Syria under the current conditions. It breaks my heart to say it because I know that this situation unresolved will cause further problems down the road for us in the Middle East, but we will have to deal with those issues then. Hopefully, we’ll have a real leader to deal with the future crisis.
“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”
“So because we don’t and I see no good by us becoming more embroiled, I can’t support further involvement in Syria under the current conditions.”
Well written position. I must slightly disagree with the premise that we need a”better plan”. In my view we need no plan, at all, ever. Syria is not out business either as a matter of international law or national interest. Isis is our business. If we are invited by the sovereign nation of Syria to kill those bastards , we should do so with great dispatch. The same in Iraq but lets don’t just invade sovereign nations if we want to or we are going to wake up some morning with little Chinese army guys telling us to get out of our homes using the same principle. Our presents in Syria is uninvited!! We are legally invited to help Iraq. Let’s don’t just invade when we want to or ,as I said, we may wake up some morning with a little Chinese army dude pointing a full auto AK at us and telling us to leave our homes citing the same lawless principle that we employed here. Oh and one more little thing— Before we deploy troops in foreign lands for WAR with ANYBODY be sure Congress has approved as required by the CONSTITUTION!!