Syria
 

Would love to here some opinions on this situation which is or at least seems to be spiraling out of control.

The door to door massacre is almost mind boggling just to think about.

I have no idea of what to do.....we threw the ambassador out of the country but as long as Russia (who has an arms shipment on the way to them) continues to support that terrible regime, and knowing that Syria is extremely closely allied with Iran, this situation is something that has to be addressed. So many dead innocent people !

Anyone have thoughts on this...to me, nothing is more important in the world right now ! If we sit still and Russia continues their support the killing there will continue ! If we intervene, there are serious risks which are evident as Iran has already sent troops to Syria to help President Bashar.

we can no longer afford to police the world. Iran,Syria,Iraq,on and on. We do need the support of others and most of the time we do not get it.

How about the use of these drones.....

"President Barack Obama's administration appears set to notify the U.S. Congress of plans to arm a fleet of Italian MQ-9 Reaper drones, a step that may spur a wider spread of remotely piloted hunter-killer aircraft."

"taly has a fleet of six Reapers. The sale of the technology to arm them, including bomb racks and "weaponization" kits costing up to $17 million, would help the United States redistribute the burden of its global military operations as the Pentagon's budget is being squeezed by deficit-reduction requirements."

Obama set to arm Italy's drones in milestone move | Reuters

Nothing in the world is more important to you right now than Syria??? Really? Now, that's scary.

There is nothing we can / should do. We have own isues here at home that takes priority over Syria. As far as I am concerned, those crazy buggers can kill themelves.

No Syria intervention.
No Iran intervention.

Here is the good news ...........

ElectoralVote

Can't Afford To Get Involved
 

There reaches a point--and we may have reached that point--beyond which no amount of altruism can justify getting involved in the internal affairs of another country. When I see the Europeans, the Russians, the Chinese, and even some if the other Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and yes, Iran, getting involved in slowing the brutal murder of innocents in Syria, that would be a condition for me to even begin to consider putting one American's life at risk. Unfortunately, it's been reported that both Russia and Iran are supporting the murderous regine in Damascus.

This is much the same as what happened in both Egypt and Libya. Sooner or later the residents of those countries will decide to become involved and overthrow their government/oppressors/murderers. That may be a totally unrealistic statement, particularly in the short term. In fact, it may never happen and Syria will continue as a murderous dictatorship. But virtually everyone else in the world is standing by and watching, particularly those who can better afford to become involved than the United States.

We have been at war in the Middle East for over a decade, killing off over 4,000 young Americans, maiming ten times that number, and contributing to bankrupting our country. All that for two countries who will take all that we will give them while expressing their disdain, even hatred for us. Even if we could afford the blood and treasure it would take to become involved in Syria--which politically and financially we can't--someone will have to convince me that we should.

Without getting too complicated, if we got involved militarily in Syria, fighting a proxy war against both Iran and Russia who are backing the Syrian regime and then Israel attacked Iran and a major regional war erupted putting the survival of Israel at risk, what would we do then? What could we do then?

My nephew the Gunnery Sargent, holds the Purple Heart, says he doesn't want to spill any American blood. And he is a conservative Repub....

This time we can both agree.

there is no percentage in investing our precious youth to try to convert/save/reform a society that has been doing what they are doing for centuries.

Syria is nothing more than another mid east chess move on the politically powerful's board....

It is time to bring our people home and not invest anymore in lost causes.
Doesn't sound very humanitarian but there is just no sense in throwing lives at causes that have no chance of success and only increase the number of American troops lives and eventually American citizens lives here and abroad.

btk

I hate to sound cruel but I think we should just let them kill themselves. In my opinion the best that we can end up with is another Muslim nation with sharia law. That's the way these things seem to turn out.

Totally agree that the US should not be involved with Syria. No sense to spill American blood over there.

Too many Americans were killed in wars that the US had no reason to be there such as Iraq and Vietnam.

We could provide weapons but that could come back to haunt us as it has in Afghanistan.

It is a United Nations problem that should be handled by countries that have interests in Syria. Have the media continue to make a huge issue of the murderous regime in Syria. This should put pressure on the countries which are in the UN which have interests in Syria. UN chief warns Syria; regime again shells Houla - Times Union Syria bodies pile up as U.N. consensus for action remains elusive - CBS News

We should not though put any boots on Syrian ground of US soldiers, sailors, marines, etc.

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State should be doing everything she can to denounce the violence in Syria as well as in areas like Darfur as well as with getting the UN involved with stopping the violence.

Somehow this reminds me of the Iran-Contra scandal. (Does anyone remember the Iran-Contra scandal?) It also reminds me of the allegations that the C.I.A. supported BOTH SIDES of the Colombian drug wars a number of years back.

I agree with the poster who wrote that we lost enough lives in wars that we had absolutely no business being involved in, but that should not stop the U.S. from applying whatever pressure it can--even though we've lost so much esteem around the world in the last dozen or so years--on the correct powers-that-be to get THEM to intervene. Mass slaughter, even if it's not of Americans, is still mass slaughter.

Priorities
 

IMHO. We will never extricate ourselves from the middle east unless we become energy self sufficient. There is no logical reason to keep buying oil from countries that hate the American ideal. We need to drill now. We need to build new refineries now. I believe in developing good alternatives to fossil fuels but it has to be economically sound and that won't be available to the general public at an affordable price for a long time.