Saturday, September 14, 2013

a war lost

For the first time that I can recall, popular opposition stopped a war action by the U.S.  It wasn't just citizen resistance to another misbegotten incursion into someone else's civil war; the military thought it was a rotten idea too. So bravo for that -- or at least a sigh of relief.  For now. 

Yes, it's hardly a perfect solution: not lobbing Tomahawk missiles is a far cry from peace and a lot of people were let off the hook who should be on the hook.  Syria's violent revolution and its government's violent suppression of that revolution will continue (I'm not making an equivalence here; Assad's government has the power and apparently the will to be more ruthless), thousands of people will die, communities will be destroyed, hundreds of thousands of lives will be upended, and those mind-boggling refugee camps will continue to grow and grow and grow.  (Spending the cost of several Tomahawks there would be a way to start addressing that misery.)  Still, for one moment, our government has acknowledged, at least tacitly,  that not all international problems require a military solution, and for that, I'm grateful.