Stay out of Syria, part 2; Sex Tape
Two days ago I wrote that the moral argument for attacking Syria isn't as moral as it seems at first blush. The problem is that the situation in Syria is a mess. It's a civil war. We know Assad is a bad guy but it's not clear the other side would govern better. It's not even clear they could govern. It's not even clear who they are. By the morality test of "Are we confident we'll make the situation better by bombing?" I'd say the answer right now has to be No, we're not confident.
There's also the issue of international support. The case for attacking doesn't have a lot of it. It's got a bit more today than a few days ago thanks to President Obama pressing the case internationally, but it's still not enough. Too many nations are holding out or have already made it clear that even though they agree "something must be done" they will not participate in actually doing it.
Why does that matter? And wouldn't those who argue this is a question of morality deride this as replacing morality with popularity, as if "It's only moral if enough people agree"?
One reason why popularity matters is that every bomb we drop kills someone's son or daughter. Someone's mother or father. A brother, a cousin, a neighbor, etc. (Obligatory The Onion reference: New Bomb Capable Of Creating 1,500 New Terrorists In Single Blast.) The world has to be ready to explain to those victims and their survivors why those casualties were necessary. If the world community is virtually unanimous in supporting the attack, as they were with Gulf War I, we can do that. If we go in as a "coalition of the willing", with the willing being only a handful or two of countries, we cannot.
International support also goes to the issue of credibility, which those arguing the moral imperative to attack also argue is critical. The problem is that if we attack without strong international support we are harming our credibility. ...Not our credibility with people like Assad. If we attack he'll be hiding as it rains bombs, and we don't care so much about cultivating relations with piss-ant dictators like him, anyway. It's our credibility with the rest of the world that counts. We have got to stop being seen as the World's PolicemanVigilante.
By the way, for anyone looking for a good backgrounder on the situation in Syria, check out the Alyssa Milano Sex Tape. Seriously.
There's also the issue of international support. The case for attacking doesn't have a lot of it. It's got a bit more today than a few days ago thanks to President Obama pressing the case internationally, but it's still not enough. Too many nations are holding out or have already made it clear that even though they agree "something must be done" they will not participate in actually doing it.
Why does that matter? And wouldn't those who argue this is a question of morality deride this as replacing morality with popularity, as if "It's only moral if enough people agree"?
One reason why popularity matters is that every bomb we drop kills someone's son or daughter. Someone's mother or father. A brother, a cousin, a neighbor, etc. (Obligatory The Onion reference: New Bomb Capable Of Creating 1,500 New Terrorists In Single Blast.) The world has to be ready to explain to those victims and their survivors why those casualties were necessary. If the world community is virtually unanimous in supporting the attack, as they were with Gulf War I, we can do that. If we go in as a "coalition of the willing", with the willing being only a handful or two of countries, we cannot.
International support also goes to the issue of credibility, which those arguing the moral imperative to attack also argue is critical. The problem is that if we attack without strong international support we are harming our credibility. ...Not our credibility with people like Assad. If we attack he'll be hiding as it rains bombs, and we don't care so much about cultivating relations with piss-ant dictators like him, anyway. It's our credibility with the rest of the world that counts. We have got to stop being seen as the World's PolicemanVigilante.
By the way, for anyone looking for a good backgrounder on the situation in Syria, check out the Alyssa Milano Sex Tape. Seriously.
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