Just in case you aren’t getting the reference above, this page will shed light on it for you.

So, Syria, the c-c-c-combo breaker of the Arab Spring of 2011. Lybia almost took that title, but thankfully it only lasted a few months. This stalemate between al-Assad’s regime and the “rebels”, as the country’s government likes to call them, has gone back and forth for so long, it’s basically Civil War at this point. The government has been slowly gaining ground again as Iran and Russia, Syria’s only true allies in this protracted fight, are supplying it with plent of heavy weaponry. Even extremists are getting into the fight now (shock!). America and the EU have been doing nothing but finger point and huff and puff, and it’s starting to look pathetic.

I’m not a war hawk, and I can certainly understand Obama’s administration from jumping into another war that it didn’t start but will probably have to finish. Boots on the ground by our troops would be an unmitigated success at first, then a massive disaster later (Iraq Part Deux). The no-fly zone imposed on Lybia was brilliant and quite effective. Doing the same for Syria would be far more complicated, and expensive, but I think it would have paid off if done a year ago. Now, Obama will be supplying arms to the rebels but I fear that it may do little since their firepower is still at a disadvantage. This internal strife is quickly becoming a proxy fight between the US and Russia.

As always, the US gets hated because we intervene, but then gets shit for it when we don’tintervene. Being the “world’s police”, a loosely used term, is exhausting. The balance between defending your interests and helping others that may or may not be in your best interest causes much more grief than it ever should, and all the talking heads only exasperate the situation. In some respects I feel like these countries should just take care of their own problems. But, everyone is interconnected these days, especially economies, so one country’s fall can easily spread and cause massive collateral damage. Especially so in the Middle East where volatility is its middle name. Stupid Crusade and its three sequels.

Regardless of whether chemical weapons were used, and if Obama is going to stand firm to his red line, this could have probably ended long before it got to this point, but at considerable political battle damage to the United States. Lord knows we don’t need anymore after the three stooges of Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney ruined all that good will a decade ago.