Side note – and a reminder for those with short term memory loss – just to bring some balance in this world of extremists. Before the last US intervention in Iraq the United Nations was publishing papers just about every day claiming 200000 people (mostly kids supposedly) were dying each year thanks to Iraq’s leadership. Of course once the US went there the UN bullying stopped and later on half the US made a u-turn. The U.N. seems to be doing the same these days with Syria. As if there was a desire to convince (i.e. brainwash) the public opinion that one more military intervention is required. As usual the act will be presented as “ineluctable”.
I’m not saying the U.N claims are false (Syrians are not fleeing to Europe only to get access to the latest iPhone 6s) but that there’s a price to pay for intervention and there’s a price to pay for idleness. The current US policy is not idleness. It’s just intervention at a slow pace and on a small scale. Being slow has never been a quality in war. Napoleon knew that. Germany knew that. The US used to know that. Lingering protracted wars are always damaging unless you’re heavily invested in Lockheed Martin. In more diplomatic terms; shit or get off the pot.