About Syria…Wait. What?

 

I’m so confused.   Here are a list of questions I have about the crisis in Syria that I have no conclusive answers for:

1.  The U.S. government is swearing they are positive it was Assad who authorized the nerve-gas attack on his own people.  Do they really know or do they “know” like they knew prior to the invasion of Iraq?  What’s different about this time to make me feel “sure’ of this assertion?

2. If Assad did this, why aren’t we targeting him, if we are going to do anything at all?  The President is going out of his way to make it clear that is not his objective.  Why the hell not?

3. The chemical and biological weapons the Syrians are alleged to have stockpiled were likely provided from some other world power.  What’s to stop them from replenishing the supply after the U.S. goes in and “surgically” strikes whatever it is they plan to strike?

4. Given the number of sects involved in the Syrian civil war, how does “punishing” the Assad regime help solve those internal issues?  Won’t there be ongoing inhumane actions – some, perhaps, even precipitated by American intervention – that will then become “our responsibility” to respond to?

5. If there is no safe way to destroy the chemical and biological weapons using unmanned technology, what is the point of a military strike?  If it is for the sole purpose of giving the Syrians a symbolic “time-out,” and the weapons stay intact, who will take control of those weapons?  Rebels or Hezbollah?  What then?

 

On the other hand:

If the situation is so deserving of our retaliation, why are we screwing around having broadcast debates and public opinion polls?   And why has POTUS taken a rather cowardly duck under the wing of a Congressional vote, which by definition  not only delays whatever action we’ll take, giving the enemy even more time to prepare, but also appears to be an attempt to spread the blame if our so-called “intelligence” turns out to be bogus again?

Your answers to any one of these questions are welcome.