Syria, 2012 versus 2014

[GrinningYMIR]

I was cleaning out my room the other day and I found an old letter from Eric Cantor, the then Representative of Virginia (Not a nice guy by the way I've met him) See, back in my Senior year my AP government teacher told us to email/send a letter to our congressman as part of an assignment, lo and behold mine actually got responded to.

I had asked him about Syria, questioning why we would get involved in another war, my 17 year old self unsure of the ramifications of it, this was just after the gas attacks mind you, when it seemed like everyone was in war fever and we would inevitably be sending men to fight in Syria. His response indicated that he had agreed to the plan to train and arm moderate rebels, and would back any attacks that would be launched. I supported that, I think, been a while.

Anyway, at the time it seemed like there were two sides, the Moderate rebels and the Syrian government. But that wasn't the case obviously, there was Al-Nusra and Khorasan, and the beginning of ISIS, back when it was still ISIL. Yet I thought it would work, because Assad was the bad guy, I bought heavy into propaganda, I didn't realize that Syria was full of bad guys, all around.

Nearly three years later we have ISIS overrunning parts of Syria and Iraq, now being bombed by the US and France and Jordan and a handful of others. Spillover has gone into Turkey and Jordan and we're seeing local powers like Saudi Arabia and Iran trying to fight ISIS their own ways.

The Syrian Civil war has become a religious one, rather than an ideological one, and I'm wondering, if we had gotten involved would it have changed anything, would our actions have actually stopped the war, or would ISIS have come along anyway?

I still believe that we should have stayed out originally, but a lot has changed in Syria, what do you think about it? Should we have let it go about its own end, should we have intervened sooner, or at a greater degree than we are now? I'm not really sure about any of that, all I'm sure about is that Syria is a mess, and it doesn't seem to be one that will be fixed any time soon.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

To many moving parts.. It's like trying to do an overhaul on an engine that's moving a runaway train and the brakes are shot. Thanks to the neocons the Iraqi army was disbanded, tossed to unemployment and left with no voice until ISIL came along and now with the train crashing through Syria we want to overhaul the engine and fix the brakes..

[Solitary]

That was very poetic, I'm impressed. It's difficult to answer because we really don't know what's going on behind closed doors. If there was any involvement it should have been the United Nations, or at least with their approval. We and Britain acted like bullies on a school ground going in there. And having "private" companies involved made it even worse. As far as I can tell this whole mess is what Eisenhower warn us about---the military industrial complex making war for profit, and helping Saudi Arabia get their oil pipe line through Iraq, or even their oil.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Roses are red, violets are blue and wtf are we gonna do in Syria?

[Solitary]

Sell birth control pills with the decoder rings and scroll signed by Jesus?

[GrinningYMIR]

I am poetic and serious at times, I just try to keep the humor and stupid jokes going because I don't want to get depressive.

The whole thing seems bad to me, I'd like for us to stay out of it but no one else is rushing forth to fight ISIS, at least not without our backing, its all just a pile of awful man

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'm not convince it is what it is claimed to be.. There always has to be a boogieman in every conflict and ISIS is the worse of the worse of the absolute worse? Really? The Nazi's seemed worse to me.

[GrinningYMIR]

I'm not convince it is what it is claimed to be.. There always has to be a boogieman in every conflict and ISIS is the worse of the worse of the absolute worse? Really? The Nazi's seemed worse to me.

The Nazi's are a unique case though, there is a reason that both the East and West look at them and see the pinnacle of evil. It would be pretty hard to come close to equaling them