President Obama’s Iraq

[google-translator]

BY CLARENCE BARR, I

Today I’m feeling empathetic. As I watch the events in the nation of Syria unfold, I find myself wondering what it must feel like to be an average Syria citizen? A person who, just like most of us, is trying to make it through life day by day.

With a possible invasion from the United States looming and the threat of death lurking from the bullet of a sniper’s rifle or the toxic fumes from nerve gas, there’s little doubt that living in Syria comes with some serious challenges. But, even with that being the case, it’s hard for me to justify a full-fledged war that, in the end, will merely act as a band-aid to a problem that’s equivalent to a gunshot wound.

I say that because, in that region of the world, heartless dictators seem to be like lizard tails. You cut one off and, before you can put your axe away another one has already taken its place.

Syria’s president Bashar Al-Assad, like Saddam Hussein, Iraq before him, is just the latest control freak who’s accused of using his citizens for target practice. When he’s gone there is little doubt in my mind that 20 years from now our grandkids will probably be hearing about another lunatic in the same country doing the exact same thing. It just doesn’t stop.

For me, what makes the prospect of military action even more troubling is how selective these so-called “humanitarian” missions appear. For years there have been cries of help for the indigenous people of South Sudan. Women and children who have been raped and murdered by the hundreds of thousands by radical Islamists who want their land. But, ironically, the same people who are now so anxious to remove Al-Assad for his atrocities continue to turn a blind eye to their suffering.

I don’t want to minimize the plight of the people in Syria. But I can’t help but wonder who decides which situations are more dire and who is more deserving of receiving assistance from the global community?

Unfortunately, at this point, nothing anyone says in disagreement with any potential conflict even matters. Once the first missile strikes, U. S. boots on Syrian soil is about as inevitable as darkness after sunset.

Once President Barack Obama drew the line in the sand and Al-Assad dared to cross it, President Obama was pretty much committed to a fight. Anything less and even someone like the president of somewhere like Turks & Caicos would feel brave enough to attempt to chump him.

War, regardless of what congress decides, appears to be on the horizon. That means that body counts, flag draped caskets and images of limbless American soldiers will soon flood news broadcasts much like they did ten years ago. And the saddest part is that some of those who will eventually give their life for the cause, during the several years it will most likely last, probably haven’t even started high school yet.

Anyone wanting to contact Clarence Barr can reach him at: Clarence Barr, II, 43110-018; P. O. Box 7007; Marianna, FL 32447-7007. Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publishing Company.