Why worry about Syria?

The best you will hear is that it's close to Israel or if something happens it will further threaten Israel...I heard some guy spouting about that last night.

I say frick it, whatever happens happens. I'd just double down on protecting a Israel and put troops there and spend money there.

So which bad guys do we need to protect people from? Assad, the free Syrian Army, ISIS, or the dozens of other splinter groups that are at war with all of the above?

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Probably because they're humans just like us, and they're being murdered by the thousands. It's easy to say "It's not our problem", but if you put yourself in their shoes you'd see how alike we really are. We can't fix every world problem, but I feel like there's more we could do in Syria.

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The same thing happens in every major US city, we need to focus here and not there.

It won't be easy, and obviously I'm not as informed as I'd wish to be on this issue. I think there's a North Korean like brainwashing element going on in Syria where a portion of the population will support their leader Assad no matter what. This seems so be the rich Syrians mostly unaffected by the war though. It seems like Russia getting involved in Syria only made things worse and their bombings have killed a lot of civilians. Between Assad, ISIS, Russia, and the other splinter groups, bombarding Syria...it's a fricked up place to be for your average Syrian citizen. No easy answers but I'd hope someone above my pay grade would have some kind of answer. I can't imagine sitting back not doing anything.

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Detroit may be a shite hole. But I don't think there has been any chemical weapons attacks.

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I meant the suffering, not that major US cities suffered chemical attacks.

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The same thing happens in every major US city, we need to focus here and not there.

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I agree we need to put police resources into gaining control of our cities...but lets not pretend what's happening in Syria is happening anywhere close to the US. It's not.

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Detroit may be a shite hole. But I don't think there has been any chemical weapons attacks.

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It doesn't matter. Let Germany or France deal with it. They are so keen on the muslim world.

It's the current flashpoint in a larger regional conflict between Iran and normal countries that are U.S. allies.

The concern is that leaving humanitarian disasters unchecked in Syria will encourage them to spread elsewhere.

The #1 strategic priority of the U.S. in the region has long been to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to unstable Islamic countries. The problem with a policy of non-intervention is that nuclear war is the somewhat likely outcome of U.S. absence from the region.

There are also wider global concerns about letting rogue states flout international norms and try to create a "spheres of influence" global system, which in inherently unstable, and which also increases risks of world war.

There are parallels to Bosnia and Afghanistan in the 1990s, in terms of enforcing global norms about the U.S. liberal world order (in the case of Bosnia), and in terms of allowing rogue state sponsors to create a long-term problem from U.S. neglect (in the case of what Pakistan did to Afghanistan, similar to what Iran is doing to Syria).

The bottom line is this--ignoring Syria will not sweep this problem under the rug, and the problem concerns the entire global economy. Assad has 0% chance of governing the whole country, and there is also a 0% chance that Iran will not try to use Syria as a jumping-off point for more destabilizing operations in the region.

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It doesn't matter. Let Germany or France deal with it. They are so keen on the muslim world.

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As someone who has spent a good deal of time in France, and has a lot of friends there, a majority of them want the refugees to be cut off. Most of those who are native to France are fiercely defensive of their culture, and they should be. French culture is something to be admired. Their politicians, much like our own, no longer represent the people.

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Doc Fenton

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Well said. I tried making the same point in another thread but you've explained it more comprehensively than I did.