The Real Issue in Syria

Obama drew a blurred line in the sand for Assad over chemical weapons. Assad tiptoed up to the line and danced over it, and Obama did nothing. Assad drove over the line in his pickup and set up his tent. Now Obama is trapped. The last thing he wanted was another war in Asia. He already let the military persuade him that an unwinnable war in Afghanistan could be won, and he got burned. Between his vague threat and dilatory behavior he really is stuck.

Yglesias and others have pointed out that any intervention in Syria is an extremely cost ineffective way to save lives - it's more likely to kill more people than it saves in any case. In my opinion, though, that's not the point. The real point is our other vague threat in the Middle East - the one where we (he) said that we wouldn't permit Iran to get nukes.

If Obama folds on Syria, or, more likely, settles for purely symbolic mini-strikes, Assad will see a giant green light, and so will Iran.

Of course the worst thing now is that there are no good options. If Assad loses, Syria likely becomes a failed state dominated by jihadis. If he win, Hezbullah and Iran win.

I think maybe Obama should have been more specific in his initial threat, like, "If you use Chemical Weapons we will kill your Air Force." He should probably do that now anyway.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-Libertarian: re-post

The most pointed critique of social security and liberalism in general is the libertarian critique. The problem with libertarians, for a liberal, is that we have too much in common. We both believe in individual rights, tolerance of individual differences, and dislike government prescription of religion. The basic difference, it seems to me, is the different answers we give to Cain's (with thanks to the Captain - my original version had the corpse asking the question!) famous question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" That's not really my basic bitch against the libertarians though. My real complaint is the same as my complaint against most religion - its premise is a fraud. For those who can't stand to wait for the punchline, I believe that trying to implement libertarian principles leads to tyranny or social disintegration. Demonstrating that takes some historical (and pre-historical) context. For all but the last 15,000 or so of the 100,000 years the human spec...
Read more

Uneasy Lies The Head

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ........... Shakespeare Henry IV, Part II. So it is with us and our slightly distant primate cousins , so it seems. A 9-year study of wild baboons in Kenya by Princeton University and the Institute of Primate Research may turn conventional assumptions of alphas males upside down. The study found that alpha males have high testosterone levels, which allows them to dominate other baboons, get access to more food, and attract better mates. This is expected. Surprisingly, though, the alpha males also have high levels of stress hormone glucocorticoid, which scientists measured from their feces samples. In fact, the stress of alpha baboons was on par with low-ranking baboons. The convention wisdom is that access to food and females provides life security and thus less stress for dominant males. Conversely, weak males who are constantly threatened by starvation and physical violence from stronger males are thought to be more stressed. The st...
Read more

We Call it Soccer

The US played its best, and maybe only good game of World Cup, but lost thanks to brilliant goalkeeping by the Swedish keeper and the bizarre method soccer uses to settle ties when three US stars could not put the ball on frame from the 12 yard spot.  At the end it came down to a blocked shot that spun in by maybe a couple of centimeters. Well, that's football - too much like life.   Which brings me to a modest proposal.  Replace the thirty minute overtimes with as many 7-player 15 minute periods as needed to settle it.  Scoring should be much easier with fewer players.
Read more