Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Syria 2.0


    In 1962, the world stood on the edge of nuclear annihilation as the United States and the Soviet Union threatened one an-other over Soviet missiles being placed in Cuba.
    As Russian ships sailed closer and closer to a U.S. blockade line, a confronta-tion appeared inevitable, a confrontation that could easily have spiraled into the mutually assured destruction of nuclear war.
    Luckily for the world, President John Kennedy chose to hear one voice among the chorus, the voice that offered a way out without violence. Cooler heads pre-vailed and the use of nuclear weapons re-mained unimaginable.
    The horrors of the use of poison gas in World War I placed chemical weapons out of bounds, even in warfare. Today, evi-dence seems clear that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used chemical weapons on his own citizens, including women and children.
    After examining the evidence, Presi-dent Barack Obama announced that the United States would use its massive air power to punish al-Assad for that use. Mindful that neither Saddam Hussein nor Osama bin Laden are still on the world scene, al-Assad has warned of dire conse-quences. Despite pushback from domestic and foreign voices, some kind of U.S. mili-tary strike on Syria appeared inevitable.
    But in foreign affairs, things can change quickly. An alternative to military action has dropped suddenly into the midst of the debate. Whether an un-guarded comment or an idea floated as a trial balloon, Secretary of State John Kerry suggested in an interview that the U.S. might hold off on any military action if Syria would give up its chemical weap-ons and submit to international inspec-tions to verify that it had done so.
    The proposal carries a certain irony. Prior to an American invasion in 2003, international inspections for chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq were successful in controlling Saddam Hussein’s capacity for mass destruction. Then, however, no effective voice could stop the chorus shouting for war.
    Diplomatic options appear far more palatable this time. Almost out of no-where, the prospect of a more peaceful solution is dangling before us. Russia, which is Syria’s closest Western ally, seems willing to help enforce inspections, despite its sometimes more bellicose rhetoric.
    It’s not like the U.S. is in favor of any-thing or anyone in Syria. This seems, however, like a moment of possibility. What tomorrow brings is, to say the least, uncertain, but uncertain is better than disastrous.




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.