Saturday, September 7, 2013

A Non-Intervention Approach

As Americans, we have the fortune to be buffeted on both sides by large oceans with neighbors to our north and south who ostensibly are our allies and peaceful.  The rest of the world throughout history has fought regular conflicts right in their cities, but modern weaponry brings new capabilities to places not seen before.  We ought not ignore what may be a provocation to another, and we should not take lightly that our might exercised incorrectly is unjust.  Woe be it for our nation to be the oppressor.

I'm not afraid to fight.  Having been a Marine, it comes natural, but I believe in fighting for a cause worth defending.  When called and threatened, I can meet force with force, but do not take advantage of my willingness.  To send me and my kind into a battle that is not our own is foolhardy at best and dangerously oppressive at worst.  

What we need to provide for ourselves is security, and security always comes in the form of stability.  Will attacking Syria achieve stability?  If attacking Syria can remotely result in instability, then the attack should not occur irrelevant to the justifications by humanitarian reasons.  Will attacking Syria result in a conflict spilling outside of the borders?  Does history demonstrate this?  History demonstrates that middle eastern conflicts stay regional and do not go global.  In short, there is no precedence for an uprising in Syria to spread outside of the Middle East.  There is a precedent for unseating secular dictators that results in total instability.  Is instability good for America?

Syria without Assad may very well result in another religious government.  Would this be better than the current secular dictator?  Look at other middle eastern religious government like Iran.  Are their ayatollahs friendly?  Do they advance our interests?  Or do they work counter to our interests?  I think the answer is clear.

Unseat Assad, the secular dictator, and risk throwing Syria into religious extremism.  Further destabilize an already volatile region and we will lay the groundwork for the next generation of extremists to invade us covertly in order to bomb us in our own country.  If we cannot maintain a non-interventionist strategy for the middle east, we will eventually bring the conflict to our own cities, and what then?

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