Update - Wed, Sep 4
Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show last night after a summer hiatus. He did a six minute analysis on the absurdity of bombing Syria - and he nailed it. He touched on our support for Iraq's use of chemical weapons in their war against Iran and of the same people who got us into war with Iraq being the cheerleaders for this next proposed war. You can see "Good Time Syria Jamboree" here after 15 seconds of a candy commercial.
If you think it absurd looking to a comedian for perspective on national foreign policy and beneath your standards, then read William Appleman Williams book, "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy." I recommend the 2009 Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. In the 1950s, he predicted that if we continued our "Open Door" policy then we would eventually lose more of our personal freedoms and civil rights. He sure got that right. And his analysis fits right in with Jon Stewart's analysis. And you will learn the open door policy was not what we were taught in high school history class. It is why we went into Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and a lot of other countries with our military. And now Syria.
Originally posted Mon, Sept 2
In times of great decision making by a country, it is always a challenge to find reliable information. As we saw with the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the feds can call in favors and put pressure on even the New York Times and Washington Post.
Throughout history, governments beat the war drums and provide selected information that is guaged to inspire anger and resolve to go to war. We are seeing that with Obama and Kerry these past two weeks. But we as a contry did not respond, with only 9% of citizens backing Obama'a proposal to bomb Syria. So he was forced to step back and seek congressional approval. Else the war would have started over this Labor Day weekend.
Here is one very reliable source - In Syria, It's a Case of All or Nothing by Patrick Cockburn. Patrick Cockburn is highly qualified - you can google him - to give us facts and perspectives on the present dilema of Syria. The Counterpunch website is known for being independent.
Thanks to a reader for this article in the Washingon Post - a beautiful bit of war propaganda disguised as a primer on the basics of the crisis. The questions are worded to lead to distorted answers. Like why Russia "loves" Syria is intended to spark our American tendency to still view Russia as "bad" when in fact we are also "bad" in the same sense. See Cockburn for good counters to the Post's subtle war propaganda. And the Post is condescending in this article - like the first question "What is Syria?" Still, worthwhile reading.