The concept of peace really doesn’t have a place in Syria at this point… either way there is fighting, and a pacifistic indifference is assent to further mayhem.
However, given NEITHER SIDE in Syria can lay claim to being a potentially stable national entity if full control was given to them, Assad’s Regiem supporting Iranian attacks on Israel and Lebanon, the Sunni Insurgency backed by some nasty terror groups themselves… we’re left with just who to back.
Obama’s reach to the United Nations makes a little sense, but only very little… as the UN is utterly uneauipped to tackle this on, within our generation, given legal and diplomatic wranglings, and a need for a improbable consensus. It’s more useful as a political subterfuge to see who will openly back a potential Syria, and using that open support for building a international coalition.
Right now, a mixed NATO-Arab Union push out of Turkey in the North, setting a phased series of defensive zones for humanitarian reasons and to decrease rebel factions logistical strain makes the most sense, and the Arab Union snatch via Jordan the largely uncontested desert lands that contain vital communication roads for Assad also makes sense- The US air support backed by Turkish Armor could aid this second phase if the Arab Union hits heavy resistance from Assad from the south-west, and they can always retreat north if they get their rear (southern border of Jordan) cut off.
A complete and systemmatic destruction of remaining airfields is a necessity, turn those airfields into mud, flames, and craters. Knock out thief reserve fuel capacity. Heavy Turkish Armor needs to randomly blast through roadblocks between the major cities in the west, taking out hard targets with Assist of American Air Support and NATO wide Special Forces lending infantry support to the Armor.
Large NATO/Arab Union FOBs need to be established in every city taken by the coalition for logistic and training support, as well as housing the new government in safety, hospital staff, etc.
In Syrias case, both sides are fucked up ideologically on a humanitarian scale, a strong NATO/Arab Union force, predominately lead by Nations like Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar… is needed for at least 20 years, to train the Syrian army in Western tactics and standards. It can be done, but it takes a long time- the Egyptian Military took heavily its Ethos from the US after its examination as to why it kept losing to Israel… when the Arab Spring came, they did the exact opposite of what the Syrian Army did. It takes a long time to build this sort of responsibility, it takes a deep understanding of the tactics underlining weaponry in relationship to the use of force, juxtapositioned against strategic considerations for best positive outcomes. NATOs tactical synthesis from the infantryman up encourages the military to back the civilian population, and not to be against it. This is going to be a massive burden to any international training force having to explain to pious suicide-bombing cultural militants the best way to serve Allah isn’t joining a Martyrs Brigade and strapping a bomb to yourself and charging headlong into a funeral procession of the infidels or heretics, but in taking up defensive positions and shooting the martyr wannabes shooting them prior to them blowing up. This requires a generational culture shift, breaking away from traditions the backed terrorism, like the Marxist in Mexico or Sri Lanka, or philosophically legitimizing it, such as Foucault, to something more endearing to a stable society that doesn’t blow babies in the market up.
Without this bases, the ‘red line’ excuse upfor muddling in Syria is bullshit, and is smantically a joke when the death toll and destruction related to Syria is juxtapositioned against how many actually died in these random and few chemical attacks.
Just like in Iraq, NOTE TO OP, WMD is a convienant excuse to the morally impressionable who lack a I depth strategic or tactical understanding of circumstances. Iraq having WMDs wasn’t a pressing concern, Iraq existing as a training ground to Anti-American terrorists post 9/11 with Saddam claiming sovereignty and playing diplomatic tricks, being able to ‘loose’ unaccounted for WMDs was the concern. Prior to 9-11, a person with Saddam’s mentality and history to the US could exist via Orthodox interstate statecraft, but sure the hell not after. WMDs were at best a pretext to dot the last Ts and Is to the logical calculus of war.
Question is, does Assad, with the obvious similarities Ideologically and Brhaviorally to Saddam, match up enough to warrant a invasion? Is Obama’s red line excuse enough in and if itself, on its own merits, for war? No to the latter… it’s a shit poor reason given how little and rare these chem attacks have been. But on the first? Well… what realistically will be the Ends our Means hope to achieve?
Merely invading because Obama claims a red line is a absurd act, and is immoral… However, using it as a means to gain support for going in and holding Syria until it stabilizes, on on a Libyan Model or bombing and leaving the place via Neglect but long term Allied Occupation like Italy and Germany after WW2 is good.
People will claim imperialism and colonialism… so be it, so long as the majority of ground troops are NATO and Arab Union, it shouldn’t matter much to the Muslim Population, and the Christian population should be chill given the other NATO nations randomly participating.
Another advantage to this would be the demilitarization of Syria, and a eventual probably return of the Golan Heights if Israel recognizes it has a responsible and stable neighbor unlikely to embrace terror tactics against it, using the heights to rain hell on Jewish cities. Don’t expect this during the first decade of ‘stability’.
We also have to consider what’s left of Syrias Airforce and Helicopter Forces likely are not Syrian, but Russian Pilots. This will likely come as a shocker to most, but Russia has a history of supplying pilots secretly to puppet states. Our Naval capacity isn’t going to be much interfered with by them, but we can’t cockblocked them landing equipment in Syria without Europe having its gas shut off, we’ll have to wait like, a solid five minutes after the Russians leave to blow their shipments up once its handed off to Assad’s forces. Our gunships should be able to support forces making contact with coastal areas with intel and fire support, as well as supplies, easily, even with full scale Russian resistance.
Declaring war on WMDs alone to prove a political point on Bush isn’t Ethical, nor the WMD excuse enough in and of itself, given our neglect in regards to the overall scale of the carnage the last two years. None the less, it is appropriate to use this as a primary excuse, however illogical or impossible it is under philosophical analysis in and of itself, if we intend and have a realistic capacity to end war in this region for generations and provide a decent chance for the opposition to become less like terrorist and more like us ethically and militarily. Merely backing a opposition just as bad as Assad and then wandering off with no long term responsibility in putting Syria back together is a worst EVIL than letting the WMDs continue to drop. In a senseless war, men have the capacity to come to their senses, but not if all means to redirection and revaluation is stripped from them. Putting one set of cruel tyrants incharge of Syria over another blocks this natural progress, and only encourages the opposition to go underground and intensify, not learning the lessons of the previous war, given its premature and unwarranted end. Wars are a terrible and sickening enterprise, but once engadged, for however ideally or absurdly, they must be fought to cartharsis by each side involved for it to truely end, so all sides to finally move on. This is a aspect forgotten in modern war but is present in primitive warfare. It’s why our cycle of wars continue to escalate and never end. It’s better at times to loose a war with meaning that for a foreign entity to come in out of the blue, saving you, leaving flopping on the shores of interstate political reality like a fish out of water, not knowing how to breath. Syria will have to be brought into the NATO-Arab Union Fold, and not exist in a awkward Russian Void not knowing where to turn, as a unequal equal to other more balanced nations.
