The terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad reason the military wants to stay in Syria

NY Post ^ | December 29, 2018 | Steven W. Mosher

[Zeneta]

SYRIA WAS NEVER A JUST WAR

The West should fight wars based on the principles of Augustine, not Mohammed.

December 28, 2018 Jules Gomes

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272367/syria-was-never-just-war-jules-gomes

“Moral factors cannot be ignored in war . . . Moral elements are among the most important in war,” wrote Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz. “Without just cause nothing that follows can be justified, even if it can be more and less virtuous,” writes ethicist Nigel Biggar in his book In Defence of War.

Snip

[Jim W N]

Money and officer glory. The military is a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies exist for their own interests, NOT the best interests of America.

[vette6387]

“As the father of an Army officer who is in theater right now, I think I have a right to an opinion. And in my opinion, the desert sands of Syria are not worth a single American life.”

YES! And tell those in Congress and the Military who persist in their desire to stay in the ME militarily, that they should offer up their children first to go and fight.

[robowombat]

What they are not telling you is that, for them, the “mission” was never primarily about ISIS; it was about eliminating the Assad regime. The Islamic State was simply a convenient cover to deploy troops into Syria. And now, having taken control of everything east of the Euphrates River with the help of the indigenous Kurdish population, they want to attack Assad. The same foreign-policy geniuses that gave us the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were back, offering the same old tired, unworkable ideas: regime change and nation building.

Overthrowing the Syrian dictator has been their goal since the beginning of that country’s civil war in 2011. Two different aid programs, one run by the Pentagon and the other run by the CIA, were set up to fund and empower the Syrian rebels. Both failed to dislodge the Assad regime, and both were ended by Trump by mid-2017.

Still, establishment types managed to convince the new president to expand the scope of the Syria operation. In mid-January of this year, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the US intended to maintain an open-ended military presence in Syria to not only defeat ISIS but to oust Assad and counter Iran’s influence.

Even as late as this September, the Washington Post, citing unnamed officials in the State Department, claimed that Trump had agreed to implement a new strategy that indefinitely extended the military effort with the goal of “establishing a stable, non-threatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community.”

This mission creep was sold to the president as a continuation of the war on ISIS.

But when he learned that the Islamic caliphate was no more, he rightly decided it was time for America’s boys and girls to come home.

The Syrian Civil War is over. Obama failed to give the Democratic forces there the support that they needed at a time when it would have made a difference.

If we stay in Syria very much longer we will wind up fighting not ISIS, but the Syrian government forces, and perhaps the Russians as well.

[Liz]

As Jonathan Turley opined: Trump is transforming Democrats
EXCERPT--The remaking of the Democratic Party was most evident last week with the reaction to Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria. There was a time when a sizable number of Democrats opposed undeclared wars and unending military campaigns. Now, however, Democrats are appalled that Trump would not continue a war in one of the myriad countries with U.S. troops engaged in combat operations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the withdrawal a “Christmas gift to Vladimir Putin,” while Sen.Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and others called it “irresponsible” or “hasty.” Of course, this “hasty” move is occurring after seven years of intervention in the civil war, including personnel on the ground since 2012. Democrats now espouse the same lines that once were denounced during the Bush administration. (FR POSTED)

[robowombat]

The United States should pursue policies, including war fighting, that serve the national interests of the USA, Not serve any set of abstractions period.

[ProudVet97]

It breaks my heart every time a Wounded Warrior Project commercial comes on TV. Bring the troops home NOW!

[Terry L Smith]

If the A-rabs want to fight and kill each other, let them, that takes the teeth away from all these “mo’s” living within the CONUS.

The tribal wars going on in Syria/Iraq/Afghanistan has been going on since the days of ALEXANDER. The Brits came and went, and now we have come, and it is time to go.

I suggest one slight difference though, from our predecessors:
Napalm the crap out of anything that we built there, and let THEM fix it themselves. Don’t forget the poppy fields, either.

[Logical me]

We are not at war with Syria! The President cannot declare war unless we are attacked. Congress must declare a war with Syria if that is what they want. Even so, we have not been attacked by Syria. No matter how bad the killing goes on, we cannot prevent it. It is happening all over the world and we legally are not their police. Do we have a Constitution? You would think not with all the simple minded shi! that gets us involved. Trump, continue pulling the troops out.

[BenLurkin]

This just in: John McCain is still dead.

[PIF]

Wounded Warriors are one thing the Wounded Warrior Project is another - cents on the dollar go to the wounded soldiers.

[Leaning Right]

> Money and officer glory. The military is a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies exist for their own interests, NOT the best interests of America. <

Too often that is true. And Marine Corps general and Medal of Honor winner Smedley Butler would agree. Back in 1935 he wrote “War is a Racket”. Butler is a bit too isolationist for my tastes, but he does make several good points.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

[firebrand]

Sigh. I wish more people, both on and off Free Republic, would follow Amir Tsarfati. He explained the reason for the withdrawal in his last videeo. Go take a look.

[robowombat]

That is why the official DOD term is ‘contingency operation’ and the DOS official term is ‘conflict’ we and pretty much nobody else officially declares war today. To messy to end with negotiations and all the odds and ends. After the Viet Nam accord of 1973 I heard more than one career officer say that that was the last negotiated end to a conflict the US was ever likely to do.

[firebrand]

ISIS is active in Africa right now. It has no more died than the man in the moon.

[Josco]

It’s widely believed that we didn’t enter Syria to fight ISIS but rather armed proto-ISIS “rebels” as we did Libyan “rebels” (Al Qaeda).

My understanding of Benghazi is that’s the purpose of the CIA’s presence as well as Chris Stevens’ meeting with the Turkish rep just before the attack.

Why did Hillary and Obama need to interfere? Still unsure.

[JohnBrowdie]

it’s shocking how frequently FR is virtually indistinguishable from DU these days.

[thoughtomator]

It should not be missed that the American people definitively said “No!” to this war, and they went ahead with it anyway.

The overthrow of the Constitution is a past event not a future one.

[thoughtomator]

> it’s shocking how frequently FR is virtually indistinguishable from DU these days.

That’s about as flat-out dishonest a statement as I’ve ever seen here, and you know it also.

What’s your angle?