I just listened to the speech that Secretary of State John Kerry gave regarding Syria.
I have to say, I feel a sick sense of "not this shit again" when I listened not only to his speech, but to the instant cable news reaction to it.
Mr. Kerry stood up and basically said that should the United States not intervene against the "thug" and "murderer" Assad, it basically would only be a matter of time before some other group of thugs or murderers stepped up to gas their own people, or even worse, gas someone tangentially related to the United States.
The idea that by not immediately involving ourselves in another complex geopolitical situation means we will have "created impunity" with which other terrorist organizations or madmen will cash in at a date to be determined.
Mr. Kerry stated that there were facts the US Government "knew" and could share; The number of deaths, a bunch of anecdotal and/or directly quoted material from allies nearby - all of which was of course nothing but supportive, and of course now that Britain's Parliament has voted against engagement, their stance was left unmentioned - and that everyone "knew" not only that Assad's regime had launched these missiles but also that they "knew" WHERE these missiles were launched from.
Tired of war? "Fatigue" shouldn't be the reason we don't get into yet another Middle Eastern turmoil just because.
This isn't just about being "fatigue[d]" Mr. Kerry. This is about a host of issues beyond simply being tired of war.
Maybe we don't want millions or billions of dollars in ordinance dumped on another area just because we apparently feel the need to police the world.
Maybe we don't want to embolden other terrorists such as Hezbollah or Iran's Revolutionary Guard from seeing an attack on their ally as a reason to, say, I don't know, attack Israel which - as we all know - if Israel were to be assaulted again, of course that'd be another reason we'd have to put our "Fatigue" aside and have to engage yet more terrorists because there are more civilians somewhere that need America (Fuck Yeah!) protecting them.
And of course, the immediate reaction on cable news, which from my perspective has been a lot more immediately skeptical than the last time we did this, turned to "Well, gee, Secretary Kerry just made a really forceful and moral case to go to war".
Are you fucking kidding me?
One man says a few words for 15 minutes, and all your skepticism evaporates?
Oh and the wonderful reassurance that "Hey guys, we know you think this could be Iraq all over again. We totally promise it won't be. We learned our lessons, we swear.
No. I don't think you have.
No thanks, Mr. Kerry. I don't think you've made the case for this engagement at this time.
Is it going to matter?
I hope so, but I figure probably not.