Syria

[Lady's Human]

Dear NATO leaders,

Stay out of Syria.

Please.

Yes, it's terrible that Assad is using chemweps against his own people.

However, it appears that it isn't just a weapon being used by the Government forces.

That being the case, and also being that the forces Assad is fighting just happen to be backed (evidently) by Iran, this is a no-win situation for the west.

A few cruise missiles or bombs will do exactly nothing to the tactical situation on the ground, and will, in fact, deteriorate the position of the United States and the rest of NATO politically. The bombs/missiles will be portrayed as hitting innocent civilians (regardless of who they actually hit), and will prove that NATO is a toothless tiger.

Irritate NATO, and you just have to hide your command and control assets for a while while NATO rains a few missiles down on your populace to demonstrate that they're irritated and paying attention. Nothing of any actual importance will follow, so go ahead and poke them in the eye all you want. Even better, you might get significant backing out of your intransigence, as Russia will take advantage of your actions and use NATO's limp reaction to gain political points in the great game.

CNN will cover the missile strikes, the armchair generals and admirals will sit and comment on what a wonderful job the troops did, and everyone will move on to the next distraction, be it Miley Cyrus or Kim Kardashian. The net effect on the ground will be nothing, but the ravening beast (the media) will have been fed and move on.

Again, NATO, stay out. Stop talking about red lines. You let them cross the last 3 "red lines" laid out by Pres. Obama, what's one more? You've already proven your threats are toothless.

If the chemweps cross borders, then get involved. Until then, however, you're firing missiles to no good end other than an immediate "feel good" news story that we did something, when the reality would be that we accomplished nothing in the near term, and eroded our political and military positions in the long term.

[pomtzu]

AMEN to that!

[phesina]

Would that they would actually listen to you here. Sigh....

[Karen]

It isn't like we need to be involved in yet another war ... Our prayers for the people and pets of Syria!

[smokey the elder]

IMO Syria is a no-win proposition. Arm the rebels? How do we know which faction is which? We tried that in Afghanistan 30+ years ago, which contributed to the birth of Al Qaeda. But the President said that chemical warfare would "cross a red line" and put himself between a rock and a hard place.

[RICHARD]

An aside from the topic? I don't want to hijack the thread and have one thought about the whole situation?

One thing that puzzles the eff out of me is the question "Are chemical weapons being used?"

When you see people dead in the streets that have no visible wounds or injuries what else would the die from?

I know there is a question of how and of what they died from, but what other weapon/system kills with out any obvious physical signs?