UGH... SYRIA - DOOMED TO REPEAT HISTORY!

All one can say about the current conflict in Syria is UGH...

It's that simple. There is absolutely no upside anywhere to this.

As I wrote in this article: Heads You Win... Tails I Lose

Honestly, there are no good answers here. On one hand the Assad regime cannot be allowed to stay in power given their heinous use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. If they have indeed done this, there is really no way that they can be allowed to stay in power. At the same time as amply showed above, any active move to take them out doesn’t necessarily improve the situation for anyone, including the Syrian people.

Personally, I can’t think of any good solutions, just solutions that are less bad and none of them involve “sitting on hands”. If we do nothing we are faced with either a victory by Iran, Hizbollah and one of the worlds worst offenders of Human Rights, the Assad regime…. OR we are faced with the likely creation of an al-Qaeda / Jihadi client state.

We then see this story: 

U.S. concludes Assad's forces used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces used chemical weapons on a small scale against rebel fighters in Syria's civil war, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters. 

"Our intelligence community has high confidence in that assessment given multiple, independent streams of information," he said. "The intelligence community estimates that 100 to 150 people have died from detected chemical weapons attacks in Syria to date; however, casualty data is likely incomplete."

As result, the U.S. will seek to increase military support to the Syrian rebels fighting against Assad.

"The president has made a decision about providing more support to the opposition, that will involve providing direct support to the (Supreme Military Council), that includes military support," Rhodes said. "This is going to be different in both scope and scale in terms of what we are providing to the SMC than what we have provided before."

EGADS...  Military aid to people tied to al-Qaeda? Where have we seen this before? OH RIGHT... Afghanistan, where we armed and trained what became the Taliban to fight against the Russians. How'd that work out for us? Yet here we are again

This is just stupidity. I get that we should take action against a regime that uses chemical weapons against it's own populace, but giving aid to rebels who would also use chemical weapons if they had them and are tied to a terrorist network that is fighting against our own soldiers in Afghanistan has to be one of the all time dumbest things that our government could possibly do.

So far be it from me to simply criticize without offering an answer to the question: "Well, what do you suggest we do?"

Therefore... I suggest that if we truly want to influence things in a positive way, we offer aid to Syrian Refugees and non-military assistance to Syrian civilians in the form of food, medicine and clothing. We can set up areas in Iraq and with the cooperation of the Turks to aid people fleeing the fighting and the horror. IF we want to take an active role, we could tighten sanctions against Iran and or attempt to physically block aid from reaching the Assad regime.

I also suggest that we coordinate with the IDF, to make sure that they Assad regime does not receive it's shipment of S-300 Russian missiles. And working to make sure that this war does not spread into Turkey, Israel or Jordan (Lebanon through Hizbollah is already involved). This is, if we really give a hoot about honestly stopping the criminal Assad regime.

Humanitarian aid would show the Syrian people that the West can be a positive influence and would do more to undermine the both the brutal Assad dictatorship and those al-Qaeda supported rebels who are doing most of the fighting in Syria. It would in effect change the way the Syrian people view us in light of the propaganda of both sides.

 But military aid to a force that supports hardcore Jihad and is fighting our own troops in Afghanistan.. One would think this is a really poor joke.

I will not however, go overboard on the Obama bashing because yes, while I  think this is a really stupid decision, his opponents, the Republicans would be much worse on this issue. Were they in the White House, G-d knows what they would be doing. STILL, the President and his administration do deserve criticism for this but not from Republicans - they should just STFU because honestly - they propose nothing better and maybe even a bit worse.

In the end, all one can say is UGH - there are (as I wrote) absolutely ZERO good options here because repeating history is sure not one of them.