I watched a video today. I did not want to, but felt compelled so that I could write this with the passion it is due. It was the video of Syrian rebels beheading three old men, one of them a Catholic bishop. They did it with a hunting knife. It was not quick or merciful, requiring a minute or more to saw through the neck of each man. I watched until half way through the second execution and that was more than I needed to see. I will not post the link; you don’t want to watch. I don’t have a problem with blood or gore, I can watch that rather clinically. What I could not endure as I watched was the depravity of these men become monsters, a whole mob of them, deriving pleasure from the decapitation of three old men. All the while multiple cell phones were brandished to record the atrocity for others, “Allah Akbar” was shouted in frenzied repetitions, and the mob reveled in almost orgasmic climax as the knife sawed through the men’s necks, and their lifeblood flowed to the ground.
This is what these men can do with hunting knives. President Obama is giving them assault rifles, shoulder fired grenades, and missiles. There are other videos of these rebels executing women and also reports of cannibalism… and these are the people we have decided are the “good guys”? Maybe they are. The reason we have “pulled the trigger” on openly providing them with weapons is that Obama had talked himself into a corner about the “red line” of the use of chemical weapons, and Assad called his bluff, and used them.
I’m not an unmitigated pacifist. I do think there are times when we as a nation have to stand with our friends around the world against evil. But when there is not a good guy in the fight, as is often the case in that part of the world, we are not playing the hero, we are playing pawns. The problem is these pawns are not content to remain pawns and will gladly accept our assistance and then, once victorious, turn on us as well. How many times does this story have to play out before we understand that this is a game we cannot win? We would do well to remember the advice of George Washington as he left office after his second term. He advised against habitual alliances, perpetual enemies, and entangling ourselves in the affairs of other countries. Intervention might not always be avoidable, but each situation should be judged on it’s merits rather than political alliances or animosities, or some grand scheme of ordering the world.
Since at least Vietnam, we have considered ourselves far more clever at this global chess game than we really are. It invariably blows up in our face, and we pay the price with the blood of our young soldiers. War is Hell, and when the warriors are the more demonic, sometimes the lucky victims are the ones that die. Vietnam left us with thousands so damaged by the things they had seen that the Hell of war continued on into the rest of their lives. Yet we allow Presidents to wage war without the consent of Congress, often for little more reason than to gain a political advantage, or cover up a mistake. It always starts small, “no boots on the ground”, but what a tangled web we weave! We are playing with fire in Syria, and with the interests of Russia and China focused there as well, this fire could conceivably ignite World War III. We have a perfect record when it comes to World Wars, but this would be one we might just lose, both in the trenches and on the merits.
IMHO: The beheading of the Catholic Bishop demonstrates that engaging in Christian values does not always mollify the Devil. Just the same, ought we not be known for bringing peace rather than weapons of war? What have we brought to Libya? Afghanistan? Pakistan? Iraq? Egypt? Syria? There is a time to stand for the downtrodden and persecuted, and if we must, we will. But we would do well to steer clear of this fight between monsters as is most of the rest of the civilized world. Giving guns to devils, thugs and murderers, what could possibly go wrong? After Fast and Furious and the Benghazi tragedy one would think we would have figured that out.
A note to my readers:
I try to get one of these out each weekend; this week I’m a little late… Summer can be a busy time for all of us! If you’d like a link mailed directly to your in-box, get me your e-mail address and I’ll add you to the list. No solicitations will result… though I can’t guarantee that the NSA won’t take note of the association!
Thanks for adding me to your list. This is an excellent post!