Rand Paul: My colleagues just voted to arm the allies of Al Qaeda

TheYoungTurk said:

Did you join voluntarily or were you drafted?

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I enlisted. And you?

JCSr said:

No, we should not come home because it will embolden the enemy. That was the meme when the republicans were running the show, and now the republicans want to run and hide? Remember they hate us because of our freedoms.

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No, no, no... remember, we fight them over there so we don't fight them over here.

Wolseley said:

I enlisted. And you?

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Neither one. I thought about volunteering but needless to say I didn't like the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recruiter fed me a good line though. I was kind of curious, because you said you didn't like the Vietnam War, so I thought you might have been drafted, as a lot of people were.

NightHawkeye said:

Hi, SnowCal.

I didn't ignore your post at all. I just don't believe that the war there can be simplified that easily. Israel is also a player in this and I doubt they want additional weapons supplies coming in, considering that they just eliminated a bunch recently.

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Israel is one of the best reasons to back the Sunni rebels. Nearby Sunni regimes have workable relations with Israel. The Shi'a Assad regime runs a neverending proxy war with Israel via Lebanon. The Syrian government is Iran's best ally on the Mediterranean. As Mitt Romney cluelessly said, Syria is Iran's route to the sea. The Syrian rebels are actively engaging against Hezbollah forces. If the Sunnis win this fight we can probably improve Israel's position. I doubt they'll be singing Kumbayah together but we can probably make peace between Sunni Syrians and Israel, just as we've made peace with Israel's other Sunni neighbors.

As others have pointed out abundantly, the US has again and again oversimplied international conflicts and repeatedly gotten involved where it shouldn't have. This is another one of those instances.

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Ironic that the people complaining that the US oversimplifies conflicts are doing the same here.

TheYoungTurk said:

Neither one. I thought about volunteering but needless to say I didn't like the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recruiter fed me a good line though. I was kind of curious, because you said you didn't like the Vietnam War, so I thought you might have been drafted, as a lot of people were.

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If Wolseley's displayed age is correct he would have been far to young to have served in Vietnam.

Fox News Poll: Voters say US should not intervene in Syria | Fox News

The current administration was not interested in asking Congress what they thought before going to Libya.
Chances are they are not interested in what even the American people think this time.

Flailing about blindly, as usual, not even able to debate it or publically air their position to let Americans understand

Jeffwhosoever said:

MSNBC news alert: Obama doesn't care what Americans think.

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Umm the source was Fox News. Just FYI

SolomonVII said:

Flailing about blindly, as usual, not even able to debate it or publically air their position to let Americans understand

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Did Ronald Reagan, the paragon of leadership and the Great Communicator, discuss minor military actions in places like Latin America with the public? As I recall he flat out lied to reporters about our involvement in El Salvador as American soldiers died in combat there. Have any recent American presidents subjected minor military engagements to widespread public debate? Stuff that involves major troop maneuvers or casualties like the Gulf War or Invasion of Iraq sure. But Obama is treating the small conflicts just like his predecessors did. Little widespread press but plenty of debate in interested circles.

He could just pull a Reagan and lie about our involvement.

SnowCal said:

Did Ronald Reagan, the paragon of leadership and the Great Communicator, discuss minor military actions in places like Latin America with the public? As I recall he flat out lied to reporters about our involvement in El Salvador as American soldiers died in combat there. Have any recent American presidents subjected minor military engagements to widespread public debate? Stuff that involves major troop maneuvers or casualties like the Gulf War or Invasion of Iraq sure. But Obama is treating the small conflicts just like his predecessors did. Little widespread press but plenty of debate in interested circles.

He could just pull a Reagan and lie about our involvement.

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Are you using Ronald Reagan as the example that you would like to have Barrack Obama follow?

Nobody seems to be clear of whether arms were being smuggled into Syria from Benghazi either, only in this cases there are no hostages, whose lives are treated as of infinite worth, at stake either.

Only four dead Americans buried in all the lies as collateral damage.

For me, what is relevant is not what happened a half a lifetime ago. What Reagan is remembered for is winning the Cold War, and initiating a twenty five year long economic boom, like no other. He doesn't receive a lot of praise for Arms for Hostages, and was not popular for years on account of that.

For me, what is relevant is that Iraq and Afghanistan have been turned into net losses, if not on Bushes watch, then definitely now on Obama's. At least with Bush going into these wars, there was broad public support, and Congressional debate and approval.

And ultimate failure.
Reagan hadn't been there, or done that. He was long since senile and now dead before all that happened.
We are under no such illusions about where ll this leads. Remove the dictator, and the Copts and the Assyrians all flee, and the moderates get pummeled into submission.

Been there, done that.

Over, and over and over.


America doesn't have a dog in this fight. May they both win in their objectives to destroy one another. That is the best that can be hoped for.
And that is the only good strategic reason for supporting the losing side, to allow them to kill each other for as long as possible.

Better than that, let them decide their own wars. If there even are moderates to support, America has shown herself particularly inept at identifying them, even here at home, let alone a world away in a foreign place.

Jeffwhosoever said:

MSNBC news alert: Obama doesn't care what Americans think.

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He said it best to the Russian Putin before the election. He doesn't need the voters approval any more, so he can do what he dam well pleases.