Philadelphia - Mr. President, key members of your national security team are interventionists who are willing to wage war for humanitarian reasons. Emotionally, who could possibly disagree with them? Plus, you foolishly drew a red line and maybe you now feel your word or your manhood is on the line, too.
Please consider, however, the civilians who will be killed in the name of protecting innocent civilians, the help this will provide Al Qaeda in casting our lot with Sunni extremists who oppose Assad, the growing isolation of the U.S. as Britain possibly sits this one out, the prodding of Hezbollah toward heightened terrorism, the creation of thousands of new wannabe terrorists who despise us, the regional instability that will be heightened, the risks for Turkey and Israel who are admittedly eager to hit Assad, the end of John Kerry's feeble peace process, the fact that this will not remove Assad and it will actually strengthen his hand, the reality that we would not like whatever regime replaces him anyway, and the difficulty in achieving the kind of surgical precision needed to remove WMD capabilities and, whew, need I go on?
Assad is a butcher and a war criminal. His use of WMD is an atrocity of the first order. There is nothing that you are planning to do here, however, that will achieve justice or realistically deter him. It will only hurt us.
Please consider, however, the civilians who will be killed in the name of protecting innocent civilians, the help this will provide Al Qaeda in casting our lot with Sunni extremists who oppose Assad, the growing isolation of the U.S. as Britain possibly sits this one out, the prodding of Hezbollah toward heightened terrorism, the creation of thousands of new wannabe terrorists who despise us, the regional instability that will be heightened, the risks for Turkey and Israel who are admittedly eager to hit Assad, the end of John Kerry's feeble peace process, the fact that this will not remove Assad and it will actually strengthen his hand, the reality that we would not like whatever regime replaces him anyway, and the difficulty in achieving the kind of surgical precision needed to remove WMD capabilities and, whew, need I go on?
Assad is a butcher and a war criminal. His use of WMD is an atrocity of the first order. There is nothing that you are planning to do here, however, that will achieve justice or realistically deter him. It will only hurt us.
Twitter @jessicamcwade