Syria, and The Hawk Fallacy

So now the Hawks are saying Obama should go and do something about Syria, making it look as if he’s not being “presidential”.

The only thing is that this is not Obama’s purview. It is, first and foremost, the UN’s problem. If the UN fails to take action (which isn’t unusual) then perhaps another nation can take on the struggle, a nation that feels itself to be especially involved. These are often nations who are close to the area of conflict. That would include perhaps Turkey, a NATO member, backed by NATO forces from other nations, a scenario we have seen all round the world in other conflicts.

But Senator McCain thinks it should be us. Just us. “Getting involved” is his phrase.

Does he have any idea how far away Washington is from Syria?

Does he have any notion how profoundly unwelcome US interference in the region would be?

McCain may be on the Armed Services Committee but he seems to be astonishingly unaware of some basic facts of political life. He seems to have forgotten his own party’s support of Assad for several decades.

Is there a solution? I wish I could say there is. Unfortunately it seems as if this Syrian struggle has many phases to go through. And anything we can do now will only make it worse.