How do you think the United States and other countries should respond to the situation in Syria?
Posted at 5:00 AM on February 3, 2012
by Eric Ringham
(15 Comments)
Filed under: International affairs, Politics/Government
As Syria's violent crackdown on rebels and dissidents continues, the U.N. Security Council is unable to agree on a course of action. Today's Question: How do you think the United States and other countries should respond to the situation in Syria?
Comments (15)
the should snek in a horse wagon and brin their whit asses here
Isn't the question along the lines of "would you step in if you saw someone beating up someone else?".
Quite shocking that most people are saying they wouldn't. And in fact, most "policing" that we should do, should be for reasons like exactly what's going on in Syria, instead of our usual excuses.(oil, terrorism, "freedom", "democracy", take your pick)
Leave it alone. Enough with the world police bs already.
We just finished one war, and are planning our withdrawal from the second... Can't this one be Turkey's problem?
I think we ought to be very careful here. We've already been in Iraq and Afghanistan, and helped remove Mubarak from Egypt and Gaddafi in Libya. If the Syrians don't want us there, it would be in our best interest to back off. Some presence means you want to help. Too much presence feels like an occupation rather than aide. Let's also be real cognizant of two extremely critical things: 1) Syria and Iran are great friends, so a war with Syria could mean taking on Iran. 2) The Syrians don't fight conventionally. They will muster a long protracted guerilla war with the US. We might get some help from Israel and Turkey, but at this point, neither country has come forward for that.
I don't know, but I'm sure whatever the US is considering is primarily for political gain as opposed to just for humanitarian reasons, regardless of what they say.
Bush cited Hussein's use of chemical weapons "against his own people" to push for the war against Iraq. Obama cited Qaddafi's aggression "against his own people" as support for NATO airstrikes in Libya. So, how is Assad treating his people? I guess some humanitarian efforts are more equal than others.
I'm a little shocked by the cynical comments from other listeners, particularly after the success in Libya.
I think we should do something similar to what we did in Libya, although the time may not be right yet for military intervention as it seems that rebels in Syria are not as well organized as they were in Libya.
I think the US has an obligation to support and promote grassroots political movements abroad, and in particular to work to stop state-sponsored mass murder. Over 7,000 people have been killed by their own government in Syria. That is not acceptable.
Our focus initially should perhaps be to end the violence, and encourage the UN to agree to intervention with the goal of protecting the Syrian people, thereby avoiding deadlock over controversial regime change and the appearance of Western meddling.
In my cyncial-realist mode >>>> Do what American business does best. Work any side that has money ! Just like we always do. ... So .. for example - contact the Arab League and sell the weapons and systems needed for the AL to form their own military force to parallel a NATO-Style force. The ALeague can send in the "friendly-faced" forces as they see fit - and American business just makes "money". =Blackwater, Halilburton Nuclear, KRB, those folks could ramp up ( er.... restart... heh heh heh) their mid-east operations toot sweet.
I think the US should just stay out of it. We have enough folks in the Middle East who see the US in negative terms, and unless this situation has a direct impact on American interests, it's really none of our business. If the UN VOTES to intervene, that's a different matter, and we can support the decision in any way we might be asked to.
When country like Syria sends in its security forces to isolate, jail, and kill its own citizens, the United States must use its interests and influence to communicate to the leaders of the oppressing autocratic government that they will be held individually accountable for their crimes against humanity. Then we need to follow through and make that happen as we did with Serbian miltary leaders who were tried and convicted for their crimes.
Except it was our meddling in 1953 that got the Shaw in power in the first place. They had a democratically elected government up till then, who made the mistake of nationalizing their oil industry. I think a strong argument could be made that people from the middle east wouldn't have the desire to fly airplanes into our building or perform other acts like that if we stayed out of their business. Everyone can see our ulterior motives except us. Let the UN handle it.
It's hard to say. Given America's unpopularity in that part of the world, if we give too much support to the protesters, we risk undercutting their credibility by allowing Assad's propagandists to paint them as America's pawns. We could easily do more harm than good, like Donald Trump's endorsement of Mitt Romney.
I don't like to be the worlds police either, probably we should follow Pres. Carter's action when the Shaw of Iran was overthrown. Just do nothing and it wont affect his administration, probably it will go away,....than again, maybe it wont!!!!
Stay out of it!
I don't remember being hired to be the world police.
It isn't that the west isn't doing enough to help the Syrians, it is that other countries are still supporting him.
More blood on Russian and Chinese hands
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