Syria: All the Right Answers Are Wrong

Body bags in Syria: A Sign of the times.

Formulating a sensible plan for reaction to atrocities by the ruling powers in Syria is an exercise in futility. There simply is no way to reasonably expect that anything we do would result in a positive outcome. Doing nothing could be worse.

These situations are one of the reasons we have a representative republic, with hopes that the representatives will be wise. Ours are not and have not been since the corporation was born in the late 18th century as a temporary solution to specific problems within companies.

We'll not get into our own corrupted system except to say that it has no answers. It has a lot of bluster, a lot of political maneuvering, a lot of saber rattling, a lot of jockeying for position on the world stage and--most of all--an extraordinary effort to protect American corporations making obscene amounts of money from war, regardless of whom the war is waged upon. In this case, it's the defenseless and the innocent. But, hell's bells, money's money.

I would be in favor of bombing specific targets in Syria if I thought, first, we knew which targets were the right ones, second, that we could hit them, third that the devastation would have a desired effect. I don't know that any of that is more than guesswork. If we do nothing, an already sullied reputation (dating to Korea) would be a little dirtier, a little less trustworthy. If we negotiate (ha!), with whom do we negotiate and for what? What's our leverage (hint: none, unless you consider humanity and you can't)?

The nations of the world have either said, "Don't bomb our ally" or "I don't give a shit, and I'm not taking part" (that would be our allies).

Rock and a hard place? Yes. Did we create the situation? We helped. Can we get out of it cleanly?No.

(Photo: NYTimes.com)