Current Events > Is the world a better place because we didn't invade Syria

(+) Yeah! (+)

No it's a way shittier place because now we have a refugee crisis, Islamic terrorism was given fertile soil to sprout so now that's back again, and western hegemony is being destroyed by populist extremism.

America is an INDISPENSABLE NATION. All you Republucans was were drooling to go to war with Iraq in 2003, YOU were wrong. But all you Dems who wanted to pull out the troops in 2008, YOU were wrong too. Anyone who wants to shut down our foreign bases is wrong, anyone who wants America to stay uninvolved is wrong, anyone who thinks we do more harm than good is wrong.

How's this for a foreign policy. Maybe let's not go invading countries for no fucking reason on false pretenses, but if the people of a country are rising up against their oppressors like they did in libya and syria, let's assemble a coalition and go in with BOOTS ON THE GROUND to end the genocide and restore order. Dont give terrorists a place to plot and scheme, dont allow a refugee crisis to explode. You overthrow that fucking dictator and you stay there as long as you fucking need to to rebuild the country, a generation if need be, and dont be in a hurry to turn over control because the electees will just fuck it up like Maliki did. Appoint an american governor to oversee the country for a decade or two, let people elect LOCAL leaders at the same time you implement political and economic reforms, and only after a long while do you get out.

Hey here's an idea, maybe our country should make SUPPORTING FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY a core of our diplomacy again unlike what that shithead Trump is doing. How about lets NOT be super close with countries like Saudi Arabia, let's call for those countries to instotute democratic reforms and give rights to all the people theyre keeping oppressed, like women. There I fixed the Middle East, you can thank me later.
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Malcolm_Caradoc posted...

No it's a way shittier place because now we have a refugee crisis, Islamic terrorism was given fertile soil to sprout so now that's back again, and western hegemony is being destroyed by populist extremism.

America is an INDISPENSABLE NATION. All you Republucans was were drooling to go to war with Iraq in 2003, YOU were wrong. But all you Dems who wanted to pull out the troops in 2008, YOU were wrong too. Anyone who wants to shut down our foreign bases is wrong, anyone who wants America to stay uninvolved is wrong, anyone who thinks we do more harm than good is wrong.

How's this for a foreign policy. Maybe let's not go invading countries for no fucking reason on false pretenses, but if the people of a country are rising up against their oppressors like they did in libya and syria, let's assemble a coalition and go in with BOOTS ON THE GROUND to end the genocide and restore order. Dont give terrorists a place to plot and scheme, dont allow a refugee crisis to explode. You overthrow that fucking dictator and you stay there as long as you fucking need to to rebuild the country, a generation if need be, and dont be in a hurry to turn over control because the electees will just fuck it up like Maliki did. Appoint an american governor to oversee the country for a decade or two, let people elect LOCAL leaders at the same time you implement political and economic reforms, and only after a long while do you get out.

Hey here's an idea, maybe our country should make SUPPORTING FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY a core of our diplomacy again unlike what that shithead Trump is doing. How about lets NOT be super close with countries like Saudi Arabia, let's call for those countries to instotute democratic reforms and give rights to all the people theyre keeping oppressed, like women. There I fixed the Middle East, you can thank me later.

Nope.

Not really, but we're probably a better country for it... or at least not as bad as we would have been if we went forward with it.
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Because, as we all know, deposing the government of Iran in 1953 certainly worked out great, as did funding the Afghan resistance in 1979, the Iraq invasion of 1990, invading Afghanistan in 2001, and the other Iraq invasion in 2003.

This is ignoring the fact that we actually have been heavily involved in Syria. The difference being that we paid a bunch of terrorists to do the fighting for us because yet another full-blown invasion in the middle east would have been bad PR. Also, we likely funded the terrorists who started the "civil war" since we've been looking to overthrow the Syrian government for decades now.
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It could've gone two ways, World War with Russia and Iran, or Assad gets the boot and we're finally done with the issue. Problem is nobody actually knows what would've happened.

shockthemonkey posted...

"Let's do that thing that always fails and provokes more terrorism!"

Terrorism is caused when we overthrow dictators that rule over stabilized governments.

Thing is Syria is already a failed state. Nobody wants Assad back when he failed this badly at protecting the country, but Russia keeps artificially propping up his regime to protect their oil pipeline deals. The country will never find peace until they get the hell out.
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We should not have intervened at all. Syria has been a Russian proxy for generations, and we didnt have a realistic chance of finding a non-radical option to support regardless. The only case for arming the rebels that I could see is to prolong the conflict to drain Russia of resources. Maybe there's a case for that but it's a cold strategy.
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