Sigh. The Senate BFFs are at it again. Now John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham have co-written an op-ed advocating for yet another military intervention, this time in the clusterf*ck that is Syria. A place so out of control that even Kofi Annan has washed his hands of it, believing it to be beyond the assistance of UN intervention, due largely to the posturing and contradictory interests of several of the member nations (looking at you, Russia and China).
But the fact remains: Syria is mired in an unbelievable quagmire of violence. So where better to send a military force already stretched beyond its limits and forcing members to stay on for upwards of four tours of duty in Afghanistan? Let's send them to another country where our interference will be seen as imperialist.
As fighting inside Syria intensifies and the opposition there renews its plea to the world for help, the Obama administration’s hands-off approach is increasingly at odds with both America’s values and its interests.
Some have suggested that recent gains by the rebels — including offensives in Damascus and Aleppo, the assassination of key regime officials and several high-profile defections — prove that the Syrian opposition is on the path to victory and does not need our assistance.
Unfortunately, while opposition fighters inside the country have grown more capable in recent months, Bashar al-Assad’s regime is far from finished and is now unleashing even more indiscriminate violence against civilians, using tanks and artillery, helicopter gunships, militias, snipers and, for the first time, fighter aircraft.
Iran and Hezbollah are bolstering this assault with far-reaching material support because its leaders recognize that Assad’s fall would inflict a critical blow on them. Russia and China, meanwhile, continue to provide diplomatic cover for Assad’s brutality.
We are hopeful the rebels will ultimately prevail, but it remains a deeply unfair and brutal fight, and the speed and manner by which it is won matter enormously. All evidence suggests that, rather than peacefully surrendering power, Assad and his allies will fight to the bitter end, tearing apart the country in the process.
America’s disengagement from this conflict carries growing costs — for the Syrian people and for U.S. interests.
Please. It is not in the US interest to keep spilling our blood and treasure in ill-understood regions of the Middle East. But as I've often said about John McCain, when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
