Syria Choices- Root Canal or Slam your Hand in the Car Door?

Deciding what to do in Syria is like choosing between having a root canal and slamming your hand in the car door. Why, in heavens name, would we want to do either?  OK, Assad is a ruthless dictator.  Yet, for many years we have supported ruthless dictators all over the world- but mostly in the Arab countries. For a brief period, it looked as though the Arab Spring would save us from this mess we are confronted with today. If only Assad could’ve kept his chemical weapons in the depot- we’d still be on the sidelines. But damn, he had to call us out, and now we’re on the verge another war. Like Obama said, “... our military doesn’t do pin pricks...” and once the shooting starts all the plans go out the window.

I’m reminded of Lincoln’s advisors who insisted that our Civil War would be over in a matter of weeks. Well-to-do aristocrats picnicked on the hillside to watch the battle of Bull Run, hoping to catch a glimpse of the war before it was all over. They had no idea it was only the beginning and a half a million lives would be lost.

Johnson used a trumped up, fake crisis, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, to get Congress to authorize unlimited military force in Vietnam. Prior to that, Kennedy had only sent “advisors” - no boots on the ground. What one president promises doesn’t mean anything to another president.

America was exhausted from fighting WWII with every man in the country in uniform and every woman in a factory making the equipment of war. Peace had just begun to settle in; GIs were going to college, getting married, buying that dream house and making families. Neither Congress or the President had the stomach to go to war, so Korea became a “conflict”, so as to lessen the pain and win support for action. America hated Korea. Ike ran for president on a platform of getting us out, which he did ( although we still have 50,000 troops in Korea today, 60 years later!) . So weary of war was our greatest twentieth century general, he  managed to avoid it for  all eight years of his presidency. He knew hell, he had been there, and he did everything to avoid it.

If we do help the rebels overthrow the Assad regime, what are left with? Militant, Al-Qaeda sympathizers are sprinkled throughout the rebel organization. We could be just trading one bad dictator for another equally bad outcome.

Which all leads me back to my question. Why do we really want to get involved at all?  If Eisenhower could avoid war, Obama should be able to too. He should check his “red line” ego at the door and get on with a peaceful solution.