Please, Go Gently

A few days ago Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman showed up in Turkey as if joined at the hip to castigate the unwillingness of the United States government to intercede in the uprising in Syria. Senator McCain went on to say that we ought to land ground forces there to quell the fighting and make possible a regime change, perhaps like the one we coerced in Iraq. Everyone knows how well that turned out.

I don't think that anyone would disagree with his assessment that the peace plan attempt forged by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has met with limited success. There is really no way to bring sufficient pressure on the government of Bashir Assad who has shown no compunction about shelling his own people. With a determined defense like this regime change is not likely to come soon without military intervention and no one in the world has the appetite for that right now.

Our two wars which we were told would cost us no more that $60 Billion have now run the tab to something in excess of $1 trillion and the estimated final costs could go as high as $4 trillion. All of this on the credit card with no payback plan. In fact, we cut revenues just as we were adding these expenditures. Senator McCain himself has gone on about the multiple tours of duty that our service personnel have had to pull. Our reserve corps and National Guard have also had to pull active duty in combat zones to fill the requirement for ground forces in two wars.

In previous wars we conscripted men to serve whether they wanted to or not. We established a surtax to pay for the wars and as a result the entire population had some skin in the game. Everyone had to sacrifice something. Now we just tell our military personnel how much we appreciate their sacrifice, tie a ribbon around a tree and go about our business. WAR IS SERIOUS BUSINESS, FOLKS. The entire country should have to think hard as to whether or not we consider it worth the price. Right now something approaching 80% of our population has serious doubts about that. It was all right as long as it was “shock and awe”, be home in six weeks but now we have been at it for ten years.

Somehow Senators McCain and Lieberman seem to have missed that point. I sort of understand Lieberman since he is for anything that may create an advantage for Israel but McCain spent several years as a guest of the North Vietnamese. I would have thought he would be a bit more reticent. Problem is that what a lot of people took away from the war in Vietnam was the way the soldiers were treated when they came home. There is no doubt that many were underappreciated but the takeaway for the Generals was the lack of need for the war and the ineffectiveness of how it was prosecuted. General Powell asserted what became known as the Powell Doctrine which stated that the country should go to war only with the agreement of the American people and with overwhelming force. Makes sense, I wonder how that got lost?

The point is that our country, Congress and our President would be down the rabbit hole crazy to initiate another war now. Syria, Iran or anywhere that we can avoid. If they don't strike us then let's not send the Marines in. Let's just take care of business at home.

The United States is a powerful nation and I am going to assert that we are at our most powerful when we are exerting moral and ethical leadership within a coalition of other countries with whom we may share interests. That is what we are doing in Syria and Iran. Civil wars and uprisings are messy and deadly. Just look at our own, still the record holder for deaths of United States citizens. We can support the desire for freedom in many ways but that fight must come from the citizens of those countries and they must shed the blood for their own freedom.

Senator Lieberman couldn't win the nomination from his own party and ran as as independent. He has already said this will be his last term and that it will because he could not be elected again. Senator McCain's time would be better spent tending to his heritage and preparing for retirement. He has given his country a full measure of his service but seems to have become embittered by his rejection by the American people in favor of President Obama.

My take is that we should thank both of these men and send them back to their homes before they cause some real damage.