Blundering back into the Middle East

Maybe Obama is trying to pull attention away from the multiple scandals plaguing his administration. Maybe Haliburton is trying to make more money.  Maybe those making US foreign policy are utterly clueless....

Best answer: all of the above

SecState John Kerry has announced that the United States is going to send military aid to Syrian rebels.  Obviously, he does not remember Libya (see May 19 blog entry).  All the US will succeed in doing it arming people who will eventually attack it (again, see Libya).  Making matters worse is the US stationing fighters in Jordan, supposedly at Jordanian request.  It starts to look like the establishment of a no-fly zone.

A no-fly zone over Syria would be much more difficult than the operation over Libya.  The Syrian anti-aircraft defense system is actually an operating system that looks pretty dense and has been built with Russian, and possibly Chinese, help. There might be Russian and Chinese personnel on the ground there too.

The United States claims that Damascus is using chemical weapons, namely sarin, against the rebels in the northwest of the country.  Syria denies this.  The real question here is "Is this any of America's business?" 

The United States might be claiming to intervene in the name of humanitarian purposes but after the IRS and NSA revelations, can anyone anywhere trust anything that comes out of Washington.  And the human rights front sees somewhat shaky when those same scandals are brought to light combined with the very real possibility of Eric Snowden possibly defecting to China or Russia.  Correct interpretation or not, this is how most of the world sees it.

Stay out of Libya, let Afghanistan wind down, and let that part of the world continue on its merry way to self-destruction.  Sit back and watch the show.  Most importantly, don't let it drag you down with it.