The Top Ten Reasons to Leave Syria Alone

1.) Russia

Russia backs the Assad regime in Syria. Extreme neocons say bomb them all, but this is foolish at best and evil at worst. Trump and his team during the campaign appeared to understand that Russia was not to be antagonized. By having peaceful relations with Russia, we can cut back on the wasteful American empire and finally bring an end to the Cold War in the west, something that never quite ended. Russia backs the Assad regime both out of historical loyalty and due to the fact that Assad is fighting radical Muslim groups the Russians perceive as dangerous, such as ISIS. Russia was the first to call us out for our illegal actions undertaken in Syria, and pushing an attack on Assad is sure to antagonize them to the point of actual military conflict.

2.) ISIS/ISIL and Al Qaeda/al-Nasur Front

There are basically five factions partaking in the Syrian civil war: the Assad government, the official opposition, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), ISIS/ISIL, and Tahrir al-Sham or the al-Nasur Front, basically Al Qaeda in Syria. Each faction fights each other, and since January the Assad regime has fared better than previously. Assad does not possess the means to support any sort of attack on the United States, nor does that seem to be within his interests. However, ISIS and Al Qaeda are not friendly to the United States to say the least. By weakening the military power of the Assad regime, we create opportunities for ISIS and Al Qaeda.

3.) Iran

Iran is trying to eradicate Al Qaeda, which is much more of a threat to them than to us. Because of our attack on the Assad regime, the Iranian government sees the United States as fighting for Al Qaeda, creating a deeper rift between our two nations when it is the interest of peace and actual national security that we close that gash.

4.) Casualties

When did we become so callous about throwing away lives willy-nilly? Escalating foreign wars does nothing but kill foreign nationals and our own soldiers. The military is supposedly for our self-defense, and when we involve ourselves in the internal affairs of other states we waste the lives that we spend there.

5.) Our intelligence might be wrong.

There is nothing new under the sun. Our intelligence concerning Middle Eastern dictators and their weapons, as well as many in many other areas, has been historically less than accurate. The amount of inaccuracy is simply deadly. In this particular situation, it makes very little sense for Assad to have attacked his people in the way that is claimed. He is currently winning, and the target also makes very little strategic sense. This ought to cause our intelligence agencies pause. Furthermore, much of the evidence for what is going on comes from Turkey, an anti-Assad country. It has also been claimed by some that the main witness is involved in Al Qaeda, and even that the extent of the attack or the attack itself is extremely questionable. It is also highly possible that the attack was perpetrated by an entity other than Assad, because Assad has supposedly been stripped of his chemical weapons, whereas ISIS and Al Qaeda is in full possession of theirs, and actually has incentive to use them, where Assad has none. If we are wrong, we attacked the wrong people, and even if we are right, we attacked them for the wrong reasons.

6.) Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a militant group and political party operating out of Lebanon. They back the Assad regime due to a Hezbollah/Assad alliance against Israel. Before anybody accuses me of hating Israel or siding with people that do, remember that Israel occupies the Golan Heights, which is recognized Syrian territory. So despite the divergent views on Israel among politically active individuals, we can agree that Syria has a legitimate complaint against the Israeli government. Hezbollah considers our attack an act of aggression, and therefore presumably feels that the US is now a fair target. We cannot afford to keep provoking new enemies or renewing old ones.

7.) The Constitution

The Constitution does not authorize the President to initiate military force. The President is the commander-in-chief, but Congress must declare war before the military can be involved. Despite some arguments, launching 59 tomahawk missiles is an act of open war. If Syria launched 59 missiles at us for violently putting down protests or something similar, would we not view it as an act of war, despite our views on the putting down of protests?

8.) The Budget and Central Banking

By once again escalating international tensions, we are supporting a system that burying us in debt and prolonging the sinister institution known as the Federal Reserve. Annually we spend over 600 billion on the military. Although small compared to the totality of the budget (about 16%), without across the board cuts the US goes ever closer to a debt crisis and currency collapse, which threatens national security far more than a Middle Eastern dictator tied up in a civil war. When across the board cuts would be much easier if we gave up involvements that are legally, morally, logically, and foreign policy-wise questionable at best, the government has a duty to do so.

9.) Bad Advisors

Several stories involving the National Security Council hit the newsrooms within days of each other. As National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster orchestrated the removal of Steve Bannon from the situation room because he was a “political advisor in the room where decisions about war and peace are made.” Perhaps instead, Bannon had brought objections to the President’s attention about the course of action plotted in Syria. In any case, the President is now surrounded solely by advisors invested in the continuation of tension and the military industrial complex, headed by a lifetime military man and suspected war criminal. In my estimation, it is these men that ought not to be in a room where decisions about war and peace are made.

10.) It tarnishes our image.

We weren’t attacked! In the eyes of the rest of the world, America has become a bully making hasty judgments about things that aren’t our business and rushing in with unreasonable force. It is this image more than anything else that endangers our actual national security interests.