17 January, 2012

Lynch: No military option in Syria

No military option in Syria:
Syria is not Libya, and has few of the unique conditions which made that intervention appropriate. The moral outrage at the depradations of Asad's forces, as well as the fevered hopes of those hoping to change the region's strategic equation by bringing down Iran's main Arab ally are not enough, any more than hope is a plan. Military intervention in Syria has little prospect of success, a high risk of disastrous failure, and a near-certainty of escalation which should make the experience of Iraq weigh extremely heavily on anyone contemplating such an intervention. There is no magic number of deaths at which the U.S. must embark on a self-defeating and foolish adventure.