Syria must go–short and sweet of it

Who to support in Syria?  Should we support anyone?  Why or why not?

I've been asked by a few people what my solution would be in Syria.

First we do have to understand that the regime is a tyrannical horror.

Second that al Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood are no better than the regime.

Third that the Iranian Foreign Legion (aka Hezbollah) is just as bad, as are the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

You don't want to help ANY of these groups.

Not a one of them.

It must also be taken into account that the regime is putting de facto control of the North East of the Nation into the hands of the Kurds.

Also that the Iraqi Government has found that someone is funneling lots of arms through the Kurdish parts of northern Iraq into Syria.  Mostly over-age Soviet era stuff.

So what should the US do?

Well, helping the Kurds to just keep civil order in the North East would be one thing, I guess.  Maybe bollix up the Middle East and the dreams of a Caliphate by having a form of Kurdistan (or 'Greater Iraq' or some other verbiage) come into being on the ground (not legally, just as a way of doing business).  The Kurds 'get' being rational, civilized, multi-cultural and multi-religious... their territorial flag in Iraq is that of the Yezidis whom they protect.

If you want anything to do... like, say, funnel over-age Soviet equipment via the black market through the Kurdish parts of Iraq into NE Syria, that would be just fine.

Not that I think that the US is doing that.  That would take foresight, intelligence, thought, not having a knee-jerk response, looking to the long-term stability of the Middle East by totally changing the playing field.  The Obama Administration is patently incapable of that sort of thing.

Israel is probably behind that if I had to guess.  Subtle play, long-term benefits, totally their style.

OK, back to Charlie-Foxtrot land, of what should the US do.  Not what we will do, mind you, but what would be the perfect US response to this stuff?

Here, I'll give you a guess:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

How do you get to that boldfaced part?

First you have to be free.

Second to be free you must secure your freedom as an individual.

Third you may use any means necessary to secure your freedom to protect your life, extend your liberty and pursue your happiness, which requires that government be held accountable by the governed.

There is one problem in Syria: it has been a police state for decades.

For all the bozos running around with guns, they are backed by other forces and can impose their will on the population without its say so through force of arms.

Now lets go to a few other people on this subject:

AND NOW, FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.

She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

- John Quincy Adams

Got that?  Good.

First – Back liberty, give our benedictions, but do not force governments upon others. They are to figure it out for themselves, or not as the case may be.

Second – Enlist under no foreign banners. Right, help NO faction in Syria. Nor its government. Not a one of them.

Third – It isn't our fight.

Now for the next bit:

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
- George Washington

And there you have it.

What is the course of America?

Well how are people supposed to secure their liberty and then form government by consent of the governed?

With arms.

What should we do?

Arm up the civilian population.

I suggest dropping cases of AK-47's and 7.62 x 39 ammo so that every man and woman in Syria can have a firearm, a few thousand rounds of ammo, and then go about figuring it out for themselves and securing their liberty from tyrants.  Maybe drop leaflets far and wide that if you can't get to a normal drop zone to put out a big 'NEED GUNS AND AMMO' sign done in 3' letters in a nearby field and we'll get to you as soon as we can with an airdrop.

The rest, as they say, is logistics.

If, once they've done so and formed up something like a government and ask us to help figure this liberty stuff out now that they have it for the first time in LIVING MEMORY then we should, indeed, help them.

A fully armed population can go about securing its peace pretty easily.

Sort of like what is flowing through Kurdistan, just simpler and a bit more direct.

Put 'MADE IN USA' stickers on everything, to drive the point home.

We don't like the government, we detest the radical factions, but we still love the people.

It is a damned sight better than supporting tyrants, thugs, or radical islamists terrorists, that's for damn sure. If you want to back a CIVIL population, then back the Kurds. They aren't harming anyone but tend to get shot at by everyone. How about supporting civilians for a change, and not governments, thugs, terrorists, kleptocrats and tyrants?

Do we mean this or not?

Put up or shut up.

Don't like the answer?

Figure it out for yourself if you don't like it.