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{"id":866,"date":"2013-09-04T21:05:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T21:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/i-am-not-going-to-write-about-syria-except-maybe-a-teensy-teensy-bit.html"},"modified":"2013-09-04T21:05:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T21:05:00","slug":"i-am-not-going-to-write-about-syria-except-maybe-a-teensy-teensy-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/i-am-not-going-to-write-about-syria-except-maybe-a-teensy-teensy-bit.html","title":{"rendered":"I am not going to write about Syria (except maybe a teensy, teensy bit)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I had said in an earlier blog post<\/a> that I wasn\u2019t going to write about Syria, and it still goes against my general approach for this blog (that is, I want to try to say something different \u2014 if I just repeat things everyone else says, I don\u2019t feel as if I\u2019m accomplishing anything with this blogging project).\u00a0\u00a0 The Anchoress has a pretty good summary of the situation<\/a>\u00a0which I\u2019d just copy and paste entirely and it would express much of what I feel. There are other blog posts and news commentaries with similar opinions, and I\u2019m sure my reader(s) have read many of these and don\u2019t need further links, or another post saying exactly the same thing.<\/p>\n

Obama is disowning the \u201cred line\u201d and claiming the \u201cinternational community\u201d not he, himself, set this red line, despite his prior explicit statement to the contrary.\u00a0 He is pushing Congress to act not because it\u2019s the right thing to do, but in a dysfunctional \u201cyou have to back me up\u201d sort of way (like when your spouse tells the kids something that you don\u2019t necessarily agree with but go along to present a united front, but with more of a component of bullying).\u00a0 There is no plan, so far as I can tell, other than \u201cair strikes now, and trust us to figure the rest out as we go.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s foolhardy to ascribe any value to the claim that Syria\u2019s Middle East neighbors support our intervention \u2014 they have their own reasons to do so and have no interest in a free and democratic Syria as the final outcome.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

At the same time, the folks at National Review\u2019s The Corner<\/a> are pretty divided on the subject, with some opposing and some, in a hold-your-nose sort of way, supporting military action.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And fundamentally, sitting here at the computer, kids tucked into bed,\u00a0the situation\u00a0worries me deeply.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been anti-war.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we should have left Iraq so hastily or be leaving the Afghan women to their fate so easily.\u00a0 But in this case:\u00a0 look, the Arab Spring wasn\u2019t a Spring.\u00a0 Maybe it was the spring of 1816 (the Year Without a Summer<\/a>), or maybe it was completely a false hope.\u00a0 But the Obama administration clearly has a very faulty understanding of the dynamics of the Middle East (or, as Hot Air<\/a> puts it, linked to by Instapundit.com, \u201cThroughout the Arab Spring, Obama has clearly been playing checkers while everyone in the region plays three-dimensional chess.\u201d), and the situation is so complex, with so many competing interests, that even a top scholar of the region would be hard-pressed to truly get it right.\u00a0 Military action has so many risks \u2014 not in terms of casualties, but in this case, risks of unintentionally producing quite the wrong outcome \u2014 that aren\u2019t being acknowledged.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And there are claims floating around that the rebels actually fired the chemical weapons, or that they\u2019re exaggerating the severity of any such attacks and the U.S. is taking these claims at face value with the slimmest of evidence.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve made it this far, you\u2019ll have figured out that I have no point, no new insight to contribute.\u00a0 Fundamentally, I feel powerless.\u00a0 Will Congress weigh all the facts and come to a decision, or be bullied or feel obliged to support the Resolution, out of fear of Obama\u2019s reaction?\u00a0 If Congress votes the Resolution down, will Obama act anyway, or if the Resolution is approved, will Obama act only within its confines?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

And now I\u2019ll go see if I can find a nice episode of House Hunters International for the evening.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"