3 Steps Out of Syria
Let me start by saying, I’m not “qualified” to propose foreign policy. I’m nobody “important.” I’m just a regular guy. I happen to align with the Libertarian Party. I often find myself having an exchange of ideas with both Republicans and Democrats and I am often asked, “Well, what would Libertarians do about Syria?” It’s a valid question. The knee-jerk reaction is that we would “get out.” Libertarians do not believe in Regime Change or needless foreign intervention. Those are usually rebutted with “We have to destroy ISIS or else they’re going to get us” or “We’re already in it! Now what do we do?”
These are good questions that deserve answers. These are questions, honestly, that have not been answered by Republicans or Democrats either. No one, it seems, has proposed any clear path to “victory” or extraction or peace or whatever. I’ve not heard anything from any side that is an actual plan. Maybe that’s why we’ve been in Afghanistan for 16 years and Iraq for 14 years. A quick Google search for “Life Coach” will tell you need some kind of attainable goals or else you’ll never make progress.
That is the discussion I want to start. What is the point? What are the goals? I’m going to outline what I personally believe would be a Libertarian path forward in Syria from where we are right now, on this day. It is my personal opinion and theoretical approach. I do not speak for the entire party nor, as I said above, do I claim to have special skills or knowledge that would qualify me as anything resembling an expert. I’m just a guy, who wants to start a conversation about the path forward in the Middle East.
First, allow me to surmise, very broadly, the recent events that got us involved. The Obama Administration, under Hillary Clinton’s watch, decided conditions were finally right for regime change in Syria. Someone, somewhere, thought US interests would be furthered by removing Assad from power. Libertarians, of course, staunchly disagree with such policies; but it already happened. That ship already sailed. So they started selling guns and equipment to rebels. A nice old fashioned proxy war got started with the US supporting the rebels and Russia supporting Assad. As always seems to happen in these sorts of things, some extremist nutters got their hands on our equipment and started really tearing shit up. Terrorizing the locals, terrorizing the rebels, terrorizing Assad; just generally being that annoying drunken ass that always shows up to the party, but is never actually invited. We’re currently at the part of the night when everybody gets pissed off at the drunken ass hat and tries to bounce them out, but because everybody still hates each other too, the whole damn thing becomes a Ballroom Blitz.
Here we are, again. The same place we always end up when we meddle in the regime change business. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up (Spelled out here for the kids who aren’t familiar with the term SNAFU). Here’s what I consider a starting point for a discussion about how to get out of this mess.
Step 1: Cut The Supply
Stop selling guns to the Middle East. Today. Right now. This minute. A late 2015 report found that ISIS is walking around with an awful lot US Military equipment. I’m not concerned with whose fault it is or how it happened. To quote Hillary Clinton, “What difference at this point does it make?” The fact is, they are getting their hands on our guns. We are arming the enemy either intentionally or through the incompetence of ourselves and/or our allies. The only way, therefore, to cut off their supply of weapons and equipment is to stop shipping equipment to the entire region. Cut. Them. Off. And I mean cut them off hard; like a binge drinking debutante blowing your money on her crack head boyfriend hard. Encourage our other allies to do the same. Even try to work with Russia to get them on board. Because right now, the Trump administration continues to sell and deliver equipment to “rebels” in the region. End the proxy part of this war right now. Stop adding fuel to the fire. Today. Cut up the credit cards, Honey. You’re not getting anything else from Daddy.
Step 2: Planned Precision
Stop dropping ordinance all over the damn place. Stop leveling villages. This is not a “conventional” war, stop treating it like one. Do that right now. Today. Some Libertarians and even Democrats might argue that we should just pull up stakes and let the tent fall where it may. I am actually going to argue against this to a degree. We started this mess and we made it worse by throwing guns and ammo into the region for the last several years.
We find ourselves locked in perpetual Frankenstein loop. Like Shelley’s Dr Frankenstein we created a monster that will never have a place in this world. We will forever be blamed for its existence and it will never leave us be so long as we have something to offer it. Unlike Dr Frankenstein, however, it is not one single physical entity that can be hunted and killed; it is an extremist ideology that we have unintentionally fostered and fed. We cannot make full restitution to the Syrian people. The horrors they have suffered cannot be undone. What we can do, however, is stop making it worse. Dropping hundreds of bombs a day is not helping the Syrian people. If we find a hideout and ISIS cache of equipment, we should hit it. But, it should be followed by complete and total transparency.
I remember the first Gulf War. We had a General on TV every night showing us intel and video. See, here is a cache of chemical weapons located here, here and here. As you can see from this satellite footage they are loading all of that into this warehouse here. And this is a bomb blowing the shit out of that warehouse leaving the buildings around completely intact. That shit was in the 90’s. WTF happened to that? We have the capability to show and tell the entire world exactly what we’re hitting and why. The fact that we don’t talk about it is inherently suspicious. There should be a very restricted and limited number of extremely precise strikes. So few, in fact, that we only need these briefings like once a week to talk about the handful of operations carried out that week.
Step 3: Reclamation
The target of the “planned precision” I speak of should be US arms and equipment. The stated goal of success should be the total removal of ALL US equipment from the theatre of war. We go home when we have retrieved or destroyed all US assets in Syria. ISIS is an idea. It’s a bad one, but you can’t bomb an idea out of people. What you can do, is make sure they don’t use your tools and technology to further that idea. Our enemies and our allies alike should be warned- if we see a US Humvee rolling down the street; its destruction is assured regardless of who is in it. Possessing or standing near US assets in Syria will be fatal. We should Tony Stark every last piece of arms, ammo and gear we injected into that place. It should be so bad that we find piles of our equipment in the desert because it has become too risky to keep nearby. That is all we should be hitting. I don’t even care if we offer a buy-back program. So long as we get it ALL out. We should make a commitment to the Syrian people that they will not be terrorized with US equipment any longer. We owe them that much.
It is my belief that, without the supplies and equipment that we, and our allies, keep furnishing to the region, ISIS will quickly wilt and die. Is Assad a nice guy? No. Is it our job to police the world? No. The Syrian people are getting decimated in the cross fire. What they see mostly are US guns in the hands of the terrorists. That, in my humble opinion, should be the stated goal and endgame in Syria. No US presence at all, no personnel, no ordinance dropped, no equipment left behind to be used by anyone else. Just pick up our trash, all of it, and go home.
These are good questions that deserve answers. These are questions, honestly, that have not been answered by Republicans or Democrats either. No one, it seems, has proposed any clear path to “victory” or extraction or peace or whatever. I’ve not heard anything from any side that is an actual plan. Maybe that’s why we’ve been in Afghanistan for 16 years and Iraq for 14 years. A quick Google search for “Life Coach” will tell you need some kind of attainable goals or else you’ll never make progress.
That is the discussion I want to start. What is the point? What are the goals? I’m going to outline what I personally believe would be a Libertarian path forward in Syria from where we are right now, on this day. It is my personal opinion and theoretical approach. I do not speak for the entire party nor, as I said above, do I claim to have special skills or knowledge that would qualify me as anything resembling an expert. I’m just a guy, who wants to start a conversation about the path forward in the Middle East.
First, allow me to surmise, very broadly, the recent events that got us involved. The Obama Administration, under Hillary Clinton’s watch, decided conditions were finally right for regime change in Syria. Someone, somewhere, thought US interests would be furthered by removing Assad from power. Libertarians, of course, staunchly disagree with such policies; but it already happened. That ship already sailed. So they started selling guns and equipment to rebels. A nice old fashioned proxy war got started with the US supporting the rebels and Russia supporting Assad. As always seems to happen in these sorts of things, some extremist nutters got their hands on our equipment and started really tearing shit up. Terrorizing the locals, terrorizing the rebels, terrorizing Assad; just generally being that annoying drunken ass that always shows up to the party, but is never actually invited. We’re currently at the part of the night when everybody gets pissed off at the drunken ass hat and tries to bounce them out, but because everybody still hates each other too, the whole damn thing becomes a Ballroom Blitz.
Here we are, again. The same place we always end up when we meddle in the regime change business. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up (Spelled out here for the kids who aren’t familiar with the term SNAFU). Here’s what I consider a starting point for a discussion about how to get out of this mess.
Step 1: Cut The Supply
Stop selling guns to the Middle East. Today. Right now. This minute. A late 2015 report found that ISIS is walking around with an awful lot US Military equipment. I’m not concerned with whose fault it is or how it happened. To quote Hillary Clinton, “What difference at this point does it make?” The fact is, they are getting their hands on our guns. We are arming the enemy either intentionally or through the incompetence of ourselves and/or our allies. The only way, therefore, to cut off their supply of weapons and equipment is to stop shipping equipment to the entire region. Cut. Them. Off. And I mean cut them off hard; like a binge drinking debutante blowing your money on her crack head boyfriend hard. Encourage our other allies to do the same. Even try to work with Russia to get them on board. Because right now, the Trump administration continues to sell and deliver equipment to “rebels” in the region. End the proxy part of this war right now. Stop adding fuel to the fire. Today. Cut up the credit cards, Honey. You’re not getting anything else from Daddy.
Step 2: Planned Precision
Stop dropping ordinance all over the damn place. Stop leveling villages. This is not a “conventional” war, stop treating it like one. Do that right now. Today. Some Libertarians and even Democrats might argue that we should just pull up stakes and let the tent fall where it may. I am actually going to argue against this to a degree. We started this mess and we made it worse by throwing guns and ammo into the region for the last several years.
We find ourselves locked in perpetual Frankenstein loop. Like Shelley’s Dr Frankenstein we created a monster that will never have a place in this world. We will forever be blamed for its existence and it will never leave us be so long as we have something to offer it. Unlike Dr Frankenstein, however, it is not one single physical entity that can be hunted and killed; it is an extremist ideology that we have unintentionally fostered and fed. We cannot make full restitution to the Syrian people. The horrors they have suffered cannot be undone. What we can do, however, is stop making it worse. Dropping hundreds of bombs a day is not helping the Syrian people. If we find a hideout and ISIS cache of equipment, we should hit it. But, it should be followed by complete and total transparency.
I remember the first Gulf War. We had a General on TV every night showing us intel and video. See, here is a cache of chemical weapons located here, here and here. As you can see from this satellite footage they are loading all of that into this warehouse here. And this is a bomb blowing the shit out of that warehouse leaving the buildings around completely intact. That shit was in the 90’s. WTF happened to that? We have the capability to show and tell the entire world exactly what we’re hitting and why. The fact that we don’t talk about it is inherently suspicious. There should be a very restricted and limited number of extremely precise strikes. So few, in fact, that we only need these briefings like once a week to talk about the handful of operations carried out that week.
Step 3: Reclamation
The target of the “planned precision” I speak of should be US arms and equipment. The stated goal of success should be the total removal of ALL US equipment from the theatre of war. We go home when we have retrieved or destroyed all US assets in Syria. ISIS is an idea. It’s a bad one, but you can’t bomb an idea out of people. What you can do, is make sure they don’t use your tools and technology to further that idea. Our enemies and our allies alike should be warned- if we see a US Humvee rolling down the street; its destruction is assured regardless of who is in it. Possessing or standing near US assets in Syria will be fatal. We should Tony Stark every last piece of arms, ammo and gear we injected into that place. It should be so bad that we find piles of our equipment in the desert because it has become too risky to keep nearby. That is all we should be hitting. I don’t even care if we offer a buy-back program. So long as we get it ALL out. We should make a commitment to the Syrian people that they will not be terrorized with US equipment any longer. We owe them that much.
It is my belief that, without the supplies and equipment that we, and our allies, keep furnishing to the region, ISIS will quickly wilt and die. Is Assad a nice guy? No. Is it our job to police the world? No. The Syrian people are getting decimated in the cross fire. What they see mostly are US guns in the hands of the terrorists. That, in my humble opinion, should be the stated goal and endgame in Syria. No US presence at all, no personnel, no ordinance dropped, no equipment left behind to be used by anyone else. Just pick up our trash, all of it, and go home.
Comments
Post a Comment