{"id":30229,"date":"2012-06-03T11:53:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T15:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=30229"},"modified":"2012-06-03T11:54:03","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T15:54:03","slug":"here-we-go-again-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=30229","title":{"rendered":"Here We Go Again \u2013 Part III?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, now we have a couple of US Senators<\/a> urging that we \u201cdo something\u201d regarding Syria. Specifically, they\u2019re Senators McCain and Lieberman. <\/p>\n

Lieberman has indicated he thinks we\u2019re getting closer to \u201cstopping the bloodshed\u201d in Syria, but that we’re \u201cmoving too slowly.\u201d And McCain is \u201cembarrassed\u201d by the lack of \u201cUS leadership\u201d regarding the situation in Syria.<\/p>\n

Lieberman\u2019s stance doesn\u2019t surprise me. IMO, Lieberman\u2019s relatively liberal regarding social matters. I\u2019d expect him to cry out, \u201cWe gotta do something now!\u201d \u2013 which is essentially what he\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

But McCain? To some extent, his stance here does. He\u2019s seen “up close and personal” what can happen when the US intervenes somewhere without first figuring out precisely what we want to accomplish and how we intend to accomplish it. That type of error by US national leadership during Vietnam cost McCain several years of his life spent as a \u201cguest\u201d in the Hanoi Hilton.<\/p>\n

Will all due respect to each: gentlemen, IMO you\u2019re not exactly helping here. No case has yet been made that US intervention in Syria is in the US national interest. I don\u2019t think the Obama administration has yet figured out who the players are, much less we want to accomplish by such an intervention. And I haven\u2019t seen anything presented to the American public that lays out the benefits and potential costs of such an intervention.<\/p>\n

All I\u2019ve seen is cries of, \u201cThis is bad! We gotta do something!\u201d But I haven\u2019t seen that \u201csomething\u201d defined \u2013 or an explanation of why it matters enough to the US to risk getting involved.<\/p>\n

Bad stuff happens in the world all the time. People are mistreated by their own governments routinely all over the world \u2013 just look at Darfur, Rwanda, Zaire, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and any number of other countries. But that should never be the criteria for US intervention, particularly intervention that risks military involvement. <\/p>\n

We should get involved in Syria if – and only if – doing so furthers US national interests and prospects for success are reasonable. If neither of those is true, we should leave well enough alone. Period. And I haven\u2019t yet seen a good case made by the current POTUS or officials in his administration to support either.<\/p>\n

Santayana warned us what happens when we ignore history. And history shows us that foreign interventions started without due consideration \u2013 even those that start out with the best of intentions \u2013 often have a way of blowing up in our face. <\/p>\n

Make the case first, gentlemen. It’s always best to look before you leap.<\/p>\n

When you sow the wind, sometimes you indeed end up reaping the whirlwind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, now we have a couple of US Senators urging that we \u201cdo something\u201d regarding Syria. … Here We Go Again \u2013 Part III?<\/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":[9,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30229","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=30229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}