Monday, September 2, 2013

A MORAL DELIMMA





Few things in life are black and white; good or bad; right or wrong.  

We live in a world of grey hues.  

The Syrian government has brutally killed civilians using so called weapon of mass destruction – indiscriminate gassing of a population.



When we see the pictures of the suffering and dying our moral instinct is to want to intervene: retribution – revenge against the perpetrators of this atrocity.  

But let’s put this in a microcosm we can relate to: 

You are taking a walk with your family in early Harlan, Kentucky.  Across the street you see a young Hatfield man shaking and slapping his McCoy wife.   The Hatfields are a clan and if you interfere you and your family will be the target of Hatfield aggression for a long as you live in Harlan.   The McCoys will be outraged at the Hatfields for the violence against their kin, but you are an outsider and they have no commitment to you.      

Other people are watching and not getting involved: what do you do?

Syria is the same thing in a macro scale.  The middle-east is divided into the Hatfields and McCoys: Sunni and Shiite.  

To further complicate things the Russians are bringing guided missile destroyers and anti-submarine attack destroyers into the Gulf.   What could possibly go wrong there?  







Before we get too morally pious we must remember that the United States is the only country to ever use weapons of mass destruction on a civilian population on a major scale.

I’m just asking.

the Ol’Buzzard

4 comments:

  1. And OB,
    The answer is that you are right! We have absolutely no business getting involved in Syria.

    Ron

    ReplyDelete
  2. no boots on the ground..period..no mas..
    and you Ol'Buzzard..need to pay closer attention to Jackiesue's post on West..West is and always has been Czech...that's why we have the westfest for the past 38 years..celebrating their Czech heritage..how the hell I ended up here is a long tale..but yeh, West is Czech.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If we had gotten involved a year ago with a clear target, perhaps we could have made a difference. Things have already gone wrong on a massive scale. Assad might be a pathetic brutal little dictator who has no qualms to what ends he will go to retain power for his family regime, but he is a pretty brilliant strategist with a massive PR machine. He knows his value to Israel, Russia, Iran, Jordan as well as the good ole' USA. If the Americans do something, they had better do it perfectly or as Assad taunts, it will only open the gates of hell...Perhaps a year ago, we could have assisted in regime change, but now? No matter what we do, we will have to let the political dust settle as it will, we have no influence or control.

    ReplyDelete

COMMENT: Ben Franklin said, "I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false."