Obama has ignored Syria for too long: it’s the rise of Isis, stupid – now help

Blanket, cold-hearted realism doesn’t work when networked, cold-hearted terrorism does. Photo ilustration: DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative Commons

This column was ranked one of the five best columns for Monday August 25 by thewire.com.

It’s time for him to do the right thing by arming moderate rebels, imposing a no-fly zone and expanding military action beyond Iraq

Barack Obama is embarking on a global course correction, if not an outright reversal: the policy of “don’t do stupid stuff” – the non-interventionism so praised by the Farid Zakarias and Tom Friedmans of the world – is getting forced out, albeit in the typical Obama fashion of admitting nothing and never going fast or far enough.

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Thank you for being “rational,” “realistic,” “coldhearted” and “canny” Mr. President

Some of the children killed in the chemical weapons attack launched by the soldiers of Bashar al-Assad in August 21, 2013.

Stephen Walt wonders: “Is Barack Obama More of a Realist Than I Am?” While Stephen Kinzer praises his “canny anti-interventionism,” and Syrian prodemocracy activist, Qusai Zakaria, assails him for his failure to punish Assad back in 2013 for launching the notorious chemical weapons attack against the civilian populations in the Damascene suburbs of Moadamieh and Ghoutah.

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From Syria to Ferguson: battling the symptom while embracing the disease

A scene from the protests in Ferguson, Missouri

Is it an ingrained American attitude: battling the symptom while embracing the disease? Creating beautiful façades behind which to hide something that is deeply rotten and festering? If so, if this is indeed the truth, what does it really say about America? More specifically, what does is say about America’s political, economic, intellectual and artistic elite – because no matter how democratic a nation is, it’s always this elite that is ultimately responsible for shaping its image and molding its moral fabric.

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Stop lying my liberal friends!

Syrian activists dedicated the Friday of October 28, 2011 for their demand of a no-fly zone. For all the violence perpetrated by the pro-Assad militias and security forces, the protest movement was still a largely nonviolent phenomenon at the time. These people , speaking in the name of millions of Syrians, were not simply ignored, they were betrayed.

Will the Ends, Will the Means – NYTimes.com.

You know why all these arguments are indeed the very essence of horseshit? Because our original demand was not about arming the rebels, but about the establishment of a no-fly zone and a credible internationally-sponsored political process that can allow all sides to chart a path towards a post-Assad period. No, this would not have been easy, but with a no-fly zone in place and a political process, it would have worked. We would not have seen this mass-slaughter, of that we can all be certain. And the expense of maintaining a no-fly zone would have been far less than the cost of the current strikes in Iraq.

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