Jeff Stahler for August 30, 2013

What a definition of altruism! (Well, human history.)

Fighting for peace is like f**king for chastity.

I see the French are talking big about Syria but will probably leave someone else (us) holding the bag when the going gets tough. Meanwhile, where the hell are the Arab states in all of this? It’s their neighbourhood, they should be taking out their own trash.

Yesterday a jet dropped a napalm or thermite bomb on a playground and the BBC had graphic pictures.It looks like the Syrian regime wants the US to attack.Also Assad’s young son said so on a social media page.Mouths of babes, and all that.

When did it ever work???

That’s an interesting article, a little smarter than Brooks usually manages. But I wonder if there’s a slight contradiction — at one point Brooks says, “We could have intervened in Syria back when there was still something to be done and some reasonable opposition to mold”, but then towards the end he quotes Ryan Crocker to the effect that major outside interventions might only make things worse. I think Obama has been wisely trying to stay out; but his red line comment, though understandable, was probably a mistake. I predict he will do the minimum he can and still say that he did something. Personally, I think he should do nothing, even if it makes him look a little silly. Or rather, not nothing, but nothing military. There are other options. I don’t support US military action there now.

I certainly hope that his decision to toss it to Congress works out. Personally I do think these decisions should have Congressional approval. I think too much war power has been placed in the hands of the executive. So I am pleased that he didn’t just go ahead and blow things up. I hope he doesn’t blow things up. There should be more options even in this sort of situation. There are people who work on these things — conflict resolution, peace making rather than war making — but somehow they never get heard when it counts. My hunch is that he will blow something up, but that he will do the minimum he can get away with, in hopes that it will go no further. The problem is that once you start shooting, it’s hard to predict where things will stop.