So now we all worked up about blasting a bunch of stuff in Syria, as if this is new. Its not. What IS new these days is our need to tell everybody what we are going to do if...
Then, when IF happens, we HAVE to do what we said we would do, no matter the results or logic. And since we flapped our lips, we have no surprise to deliver. Remember the generals announcing offensives in Iraq so the bad guys could beat feet out of town?
The real case to be made for blasting away at the Syrian gang is that not doing so may well lead to more use of toxic gas on more people. Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Iranians in the 80s (remember there was a long, bloody war between Iraq and Iran when Hussein was our pal?). Since he was killing folks that were not our pals, we had nothing to say about it, even though gassing people was as much against international law then as it is now. So when the Hussein regime decided to gas its own citizens (Kurds) for two years, that too was OK. Except that the news got out and folks got very upset and by then old Saddam wasn't so much our buddy. Even so, we and the world did nothing until we conjured up myths about "WMD"s and toppled his regime, to be replaced by a "beacon of democracy" - remember?
Now Mr. Assad and his gang gave it a go - gas the opposition and see if that scares them into submission; after all it worked next door earlier. These guys are fighting for their lives and their religion and the risk of retaliation by the "world community" is, to them, well worth it.
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