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Syria

Just wanted to put up some links regarding Syria.

Kevin Drum points to an LA Times article showing that the "middle" or compromise path of just shooting some missiles at Syria, is the worst possible thing we could do. If we really think there's something happening that is worth investing in militarily (and don't want to just make things worse), we will have to commit to it fully.

Matthew Yglesias points out that if we really have money to save the lives of "foreigners", we would get much better ROI by giving money to malaria prevention. Jonathan Chait, who supports bombing Syria, doesn't like Yglesias' argument, and i understand how it feels like a non-sequitur, but it's always interesting how there's money for certain types of crises, especially when there seems to be a military solution, and not others. Yglesias also points to a study showing that military interventions in support of rebels typically leads to more civilian deaths.

I also want to acknowledge the bravery of the UN experts who traveled to the site of the alleged chemical attack in Syria to see if they could confirm it. Everyone else seems to be taking it as a given that the Syrian government used chemicals weapons, but if this is indeed our "red line", it will be good to confirm that it really happened. It also reinforces my wish that we had a functioning world government so that it wasn't up to individual countries to decide what the "red line" is. The UN is clearly valuable even in its limited capacity today. But imagine if we had an authority that was able to establish and act upon guidelines for what to do in cases like Libya, Egypt, Syria, etc., instead of what happens now, which always feels like we are winging it.

By fnord12 | August 28, 2013, 10:13 AM | Liberal Outrage