Political Crossfire Forums

I might sound like an asshole here, but at the end of the day isn't killing people simply killing people? Why should I or anyone else, including the current admin, care more about the Syrian rebels now that they have had chemical weapons used against them? If we really cared shouldn't we care regardless of what types of weapons they face? Common sense would say yes, you either support the Syrian government or you support the rebels, weapons used be damned. Getting outraged only when certain types of weapons are used is a form of political correctness.

It matters for a bunch of reasons, none of them very good, all of them tied together by a common, shitty strategy.

One reason is that allowing the use of chemical weapons sets a precedent. It tells other people in Assad's situation that if they use such devices, they will not be punished for doing so.

A second reason is that the US is hoping to capitalize on this Arab Spring shit. Let the people know that America has their back, and won't tolerate the use of weapons of mass destruction against citizens.

The real reason is pure geostrategy. Obama isn't sure how it is going to turn out. So he is hedging his bets: he isn't taking a side except against certain tactics, which puts him in a comparatively better position when one of the parties prevail. The problem is that you have additional pressure to get involved because Russia is sending in weapons, and Israel is itching to start bombing this shit before it ends up in Palestine. Right now, Obama is telling the Israeli's to chill the f**k out and see what happens. But then all of a sudden you have some dickhole using chemical weapons, in a country at civil war, with both sides consisting of a huge number of Islamic extremists... right next door to Israel. Israel will go apeshit if they need too, and as a consequence, some Russian soldiers are going to get killed. And then all of a sudden a stupid pissing contest between morons turns into a stupid pissing contest between superpowers.

Assad used chemical weapons, are you serious? Holy shit, who saw this coming!?! I mean... I saw video Syrian rebels foaming from the mouth as they convulsed to death on the ground a couple month ago, but I had just assumed it was some diet coke and mentos video trickery. Thank the lord our government was there to conduct a thorough investigation so that we could come to the same conclusion as Israel except months later. I don't believe anything I'm told until someone from the White House tells me; they're the only ones I really trust these days.

Chemical weapons are used on civilians, not so much fighters. This is a big distinction. If Assad carpet bombed civilians, we'd probably think about doing something too. Which is exactly why we got involved in Libya, Qaddafi was going in to slaughter civilians directly. Of course, Libya wasn't the f**k Syria is, so our move is much much harder.