Syria’s civil war is exacting an appalling toll on millions of suffering civilians. The carnage is so brutal that the United States and others must act quickly to prevent the country from descending into even further chaos. That was my major takeaway from an Aspen Institute meeting in Morocco last week with 25 former foreign ministers from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The death and destruction in Syria is numbing. More than 80,000 people have been killed. More than 1 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, and more than 2 million have lost their homes and are internally displaced. The UN believes the refugee numbers could double or even triple in the next year. The health care system is breaking down with many hospitals destroyed or not functioning. The historic cities of Aleppo and Damascus are besieged. Lahkdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat and UN envoy to the conflict, told us in Morocco that “Syria is melting away.’’
Comments
"....And not when we have a humanitarian obligation to help civilians...." Why is it OUR obligation, and not other countries? Why is the moral imperative always supposed to be vested in the USA?? What about the rest of the world? "At the start of the Iraq war 10 years ago this month, many Arabs abd Europeans complained they hd had enough of activist Amercian leadership in the Middle East. Ten years later, some of those same people are now begging the United States to assert itself.." Well, of course, that's not anything new is it? We've seen that movie a couple of times....usually ends badly for us no matter what we do....some religious minority we've "offended" by saving thousnds of lives in several other minorities....ends up on CNN doing the left foot/rigt foot sandal dance while buning an Amwerican flag or an effigy of our President. NO!!! These people are living is the 7th century, and there is no way we can help them out of that. They are still killing each other over whose ethnicity is closer to Allah, and whoes variation of that fairy tale is the right one. This is indeed tragic and sad, but there are young boys and girls in other countries, that have way more of a stake in Syria than we have, that are just as capable of dying as our kids. Where is the MORAL IMPERATIVE for that wonderful Religion of Peace Islam, to help their fellow Muslims? They don't have such an imperative...they just look for someone to BLAME however it ends...and that is, almost 100% of the time, the USA. Stay out!!!
"gr8te" you are so right with your comment......the last thing the US should do is go off on another Middle East "protection" war where we gain nothing but lose our men and women. The US needs to take care of it's own country. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Congress needs to look homeward for a change and rebuild our own country. Maybe the big "war-mongering" defense contractors can come up with some great ideas on how to rebuild the US.
Professor Burns, Haven't you learned anything from our misadventures in the Muslim world. We were even thanked by Yugoslavian Muslims with their attempted terror attack on Fort Dix. That's in New Jersey you kow.
To the walls! To the walls! The barbarians are at the gate. Are you kidding me. Once more into the breach. Please let us hope Obama says no thanks to this one. These same folks screaming about moral imperatives will be screaming about the our dead once the killing begins. You sent me off to a stupid war. You sent my son off to a stupid war. You sent my grandson off to your most recent stupid war. I'm tired of your stupid wars. First the Russinas were our enemy. Then the Chinese. Now the Middle East and any other Muslim we can find. Get rid of them and we're lining up the Russians for round two. Seriously guys we are either really paranoid, difficult to get along with or the rest of the world is nuts for hating the nicest guy on the block. It must be the latter because we're always right and the world is our business for we own it.
It's time for the OIC [Organization of the Islamic Cooperation] which is the largest voting bloc in the UN to step up and do something useful. Maybe they could take a break from pestering the rest of us about being more compliant with Islamic laws against blasphemy and work to get some "cooperation" amongst its member states.
Right! The truth is they only use "their Islamic laws" to justify killing people and to enslave women. Whe it comes to doing anything HARD that is actually good for the world, "their Islamic laws" don't apply. Look at that scar Bin laden, as an example. He had 40 million dollars, and could have done huge amounts of good for his people with that money, if he had creativity, was a hard worker, and if his Islamic belieffs told him it is better to help to feed people and build things, rather than kill and destroy. We know what "Holy islam" told him to do, don't we. KILL, kill, kill, kill. And when they can't kill people in the west, they kill each other.
Where's Saudi Arabia's boys in all this?? We know they use their "Islamic laws"to justify oppression of women. Don't the same laws compel them to take off their robes once in awhile and pick up a gun on behalf of their brother Muslims? Or does Muslim law just compel them to degrade women, and continue to eat, and buy bigger robes. Phonies. All of them.
One has to wonder why we haven't used cyberattacks to sabotage and disable Syria's military communications and facilities. We should provide military aid to help the Syrian rebel army better protect enclaves where they hold territory and where forms of self government are emerging. We should provide humanitarian aid to support displaced populations. We should support and nourish a Democratic New Syria as the Autocratic Old Syria is crumbling. American objectives should be to end the Syrian regime's strangleholdon its own population and on Lebanon and to end the arms pipeline from Iran to Syia to Hezbollah to Hamas which supports terrorism. What we need is a vision and a game plan for the Levant. The Obama Administration needs to articulate and broadcast this vision and should do so on the President's trip to Israel. He should also insist that Israel settle with the Palestinian authority on a two state solution. This monumemtal Peace Ageement will take the wind out of the sails of Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran as their aims will be exposed as simple power grabs rather than serving any higher purposed liberation movement. Obama needs to get off the bench and play point guard to lead the team. Sitting on the bench when you are the most powerful leader in the world is not acceptable.
"We should support and nourish a Democratic New Syria - - -: Are all these ethnic tribes going to stop killing each other, and form a "New Syria"? I very much doubt it.
"He (Obama) should also insist that Israel settle with the Palestinian authority on a two state solution. This monumemtal Peace Ageement will take the wind out of the sails of Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran as their aims will be exposed as simple power grabs rather than serving any higher purposed liberation movement. " Mr. Obama's dealings with Isreal have always implicitly, but clearly, been aimed at preassuring them to stop building settlements in what is to become Palastinian territory and to get back to the negotiating table. Because of the powerful Jewish lobby in this country, and the conservative control of Isreal, he hasn't gotten very far. Easier said than done.
Why can't we just build a big wall around the entire region and fill it with water?
Leading from behind
http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2013/03/17/the-war-intensifies-we-babble-about-peace-and-retreat/?singlepage=true
l'll ask again begolfin, what skin in the game do you have when we send our soldiers to die?
Once again history is repeating itself. The western democracies are sitting on their hands watching the slaughter of civilians by a brutal dictatorship. We talk of the tribalism in the Middle East but exclude Israel which has become more and more of a theocracy and less and less of a democracy (women have to ride in the back of the bus in conservative areas). The least the Obama administration should do is to create a no fly zone but I fear this administration is too timid just as it has been too timid to go after the banksters.
Here...here's a gun...stop "sitting on your hands" and go over and help them out. Or are you "too timid"?
Agreed gr8te. Potlemac, how many children do you have in the miltary?
And what was the reason we went into Libya?
And what is the reason France and other European countries are not going into Syria?