{"id":6483,"date":"2013-09-13T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T22:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6483"},"modified":"2013-09-13T15:26:14","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T22:26:14","slug":"syria-in-a-nutshell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/syria-in-a-nutshell\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria in a Nutshell"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We are contemplating going to war in Syria to help the opposition a lot and to hurt Assad some, or to help the opposition some and hurt Assad a lot, or to hurt Assad some and help the opposition some, or to force Assad to stop or to leave, or to stop but stay, or to stop and leave; or to restore the word of the president, or the word of the United States, or the word of the international community by bombing, or by threatening to bomb but not bombing, or by\u00a0neither threatening to\u00a0bomb\u00a0nor bombing; or to warn the Russians to stay out, or to welcome the Russians to come in, or to warn the Russians to stay out and welcome the Russians to come in. Message? We are planning to do all kinds of things by not doing anything.<\/p>\n

We had planned a \u201cshot across the bow\u201d against Syria, which was to be \u201cunbelievably small\u201d but could by no stretch of the imagination be a \u201cpinprick\u201d \u2014 given that the U.S. military \u201cdoesn\u2019t do pinpricks.\u201d But a pinprick at least hits its target, while a shot across the bow does not. Message?\u00a0The administration apparently wants to talk about taking military action rather than take military action, and so splits the difference and talks about taking a little bit of military action.<\/p>\n

First Hillary Clinton set a red line, then Barack Obama set two; but neither really did, because the world already had set red lines. Message? Everyone vies to set red lines; no one competes to enforce them.<\/p>\n

The United States does not bomb a sovereign nation that is responsible for a war that kills 99,000 people. The United States instead does intend to bomb a state that has used\u00a0WMD\u00a0to kill 1,000. But then again, the United States really did not bomb a state that has killed 1,000 with\u00a0WMD. The United States would bomb any sovereign nation that has killed 1,000 with\u00a0WMD, to destroy its\u00a0WMD, or to warn others not to kill 1,000 with\u00a0WMD, or to punish it for already killing 1,000 withWMD. Message? If you\u2019re a monster, either kill 99,000 without\u00a0WMD, or a number smaller than 1,000 with\u00a0WMD\u00a0\u2014 or maybe 1,000 with\u00a0WMD\u00a0after all.<\/p>\n

According to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, Mr. Assad, before he was to step down and leave, was not long earlier a \u201creformer\u201d and a \u201cmoderate,\u201d at the very time when Mr. Qaddafi in contrast was targeted as someone who needed to be captured or killed. But before we targeted Qaddafi, he had in fact also been proclaimed to be a reformer and a moderate. The message? Middle Eastern authoritarians should worry when the U.S. labels them reformers and moderates, but relax when we order them to step down and leave.<\/p>\n

War with Syria was once imminent, given that time was of the essence, and then was not imminent, given that time was not of the essence. Message? Apparently when we think about bombing, we have to bomb right away before the targets scatter; but when we think about not bombing, then we should not bomb right away because the target always stays put while we think about bombing \u2014 or not.<\/p>\n

If we are going to bomb Syria, the president does not have\u00a0to go to Congress. But he also is supposed to go to Congress. But he also can bomb Syria after he goes to Congress if he doesn\u2019t like the way Congress votes. But he can also postpone going to Congress if he is afraid that he won\u2019t like the way Congress votes. Or he can go ahead and not postpone going to Congress, and just bomb Syria because he does not want to go to Congress if he thinks he won\u2019t like the way Congress votes. Message? Going and not going to Congress are essential.<\/p>\n

Assad is a monster who kills thousands. Assad is a monster who gasses children and seems also to be the only one protecting Christians, Alawites, and Kurds from non-monsters who do not gas children but do kill minorities. Assad is opposed by monsters who are cannibals and execute prisoners as well as non-monsters who only kill but do not eat Assad\u2019s monsters. Message? Sometimes monsters are non-monsters, and sometimes non-monsters are monsters.<\/p>\n

Obama was elected to end wars, not to start them. So he ended a war in Iraq that in truth had already been ended, and continued one in Afghanistan that was not ended, and then started a war in Libya but does not want to start one in Syria since we are tired of the wars that someone else started in Afghanistan and that ended in Iraq and that he started in Libya. Message? Obama says that he does not like to start wars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner\u00a0 We are contemplating going to war in Syria to help the opposition a lot and to hurt Assad some, or to help the opposition some and hurt Assad a lot, or to hurt Assad some and help the opposition some, or to force Assad to stop or to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[127],"tags":[12,249,1040,1048,1030,76],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Gz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6491,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-box-canyon\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Box Canyon","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Hamlet-in-cheif wanted simultaneously to act and not act. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online The Syrian fiasco arose from two mutually contradictory desires. Barack Obama sincerely wanted Bashar Assad to stop killing his own people. Barack Obama also really was not willing to use force to ensure that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6399,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-the-war-to-save-face-or-save-lives\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":1},"title":"Is The War to Save Face or Save Lives?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media Click here to see the symposium of PJ columnists analyzing the pros and cons of an intervention in Syria. Most of the arguments pro and con for an intervention in Syria have already been made. I think the consensus is that while stopping Assad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6539,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/goodbye-syria-on-to-iran\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":2},"title":"Goodbye Syria, On to Iran!","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media\u00a0 To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is the way Syria ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper. We are back where we started \u2014 lots of people dying \u2014 as the crisis recedes with a high five and a sigh, rather than with America\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iran"","block_context":{"text":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iran\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6389,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-is-the-syria-plan\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":3},"title":"What Is the Syria Plan?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner We are on the verge of a war with Syria. Yet I don\u2019t think the administration has as of yet articulated what its aims are and thus is confused about the means of obtaining them. Is the point of the impending military action\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6417,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/now-what-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":4},"title":"Now What?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online What are the president\u2019s strategic objectives in the present mess? Does he know? There are four general strategic options \u2014 predicated on the political fact that either the Congress will approve the operation or that the Obama administration will ignore\u00a0it\u00a0if\u00a0it doesn\u2019t, and that\u00a0Obama\u00a0is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6437,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-farce\/","url_meta":{"origin":6483,"position":5},"title":"Obama’s Farce","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"He sold his plan for bombing Syria on flawed political assumptions. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online \u00a0 To support the president\u2019s enforcement of his red line in Syria requires suspensions of disbelief. Here are several. I wish it were not true, but there is scant evidence that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Syria"","block_context":{"text":"Syria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/syria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/5516984495_a7e9026136-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6484,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6483\/revisions\/6484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}