{"id":30165,"date":"2012-05-29T13:33:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T17:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=30165"},"modified":"2012-05-29T13:38:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T17:38:56","slug":"here-we-go-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30165","title":{"rendered":"Here We Go Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Guardian, per the CJCS, GEN Martin Dempsey, the US is currently considering “military options” in Syria<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There may indeed be a case to be made for US intervention in Syria. After all, Syria has recently been a close ally of Iran\/Hezbollah, has generally complicated things in the Middle East for decades, is reputed to have an active WMD program, and is no friend of the US. And ever since the “Arab Spring” uprisings, Assad has been acting like a lightweight wannabe trying to channel Saddam Hussein or Idi Amin while massacring parts of his own country. But two parts of GEN Dempsey’s remarks trouble me anyway.<\/p>\n

First: GEN Dempsey indicated that the US would be prepared to act if it “were asked to do so”. I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’s talking about the POTUS “asking” the CJCS to begin operations. So I’m kinda wondering: why are we basing the use of US military force on getting an “invitation” to do so from some foreign entity vice on what best supports US national interests?<\/p>\n

Second, the stated justification for US intervention is “because of the atrocities.” Presumably, GEN Dempsey is referring to one or more of the massacres attributed to the Asad regime in Syria. Apparently I missed the memo. When in the hell did preventing evil anywhere in the world become justification for US military intervention? <\/p>\n

Call me cold, cynical, old-school, Machiavellian, whatever – but unless US national interests are at stake, I just don’t see any valid justification for asking US troops to risk life and limb. And IMO, being “world policeman” is a losing national strategy in the long-term. All that will do is make the world safe for everyone else but us, while we end up paying the cost of doing so.<\/p>\n

So far, I haven’t seen anyone make the case that it’s in US interests to intervene in Syria now, and that said intervention is worth the cost in blood and money that would be involved. And until I do, well, I for one am not exactly keen to jump into yet another foreign war. <\/p>\n

The case might well be there. But I haven’t seen it yet.<\/p>\n

Over to you, GEN Dempsey. Or should I say Mr. President?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the Guardian, per the CJCS, GEN Martin Dempsey, the US is currently considering “military … Here We Go Again?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}