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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The Terrible Case For Staying In Syria
2019-05-31
The co-authors of this piece are policy wonks who spent time at the libertarian Cato Institute. From the About for War on the Rocks:
War on the Rocks is a platform for analysis, commentary, debate and multimedia content on foreign policy and national security issues through a realist lens. It features articles and podcasts produced by an array of writers with deep experience in these matters: top notch scholars who study war, those who have served or worked in war zones, and more than a few who have done it all.
[WarOnTheRocks] President Donald Trump was right to want to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and should not have let his advisers overrule him. The rationales the administration gives for keeping U.S. forces in Syria are impossibly ambitious, and vehicles for escalation. Elements of the administration, starting with John Bolton, the national security adviser, seem eager to use U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq as bait for a war with Iran.

We have occasionally hoped that Congress might bestir itself to vote on the U.S. war in Syria, or even end it. Instead, its members mostly criticized the possibility of withdrawal, avoided any vote on the war, and now have sponsored an expert report setting out an extravagant set of missions for the small U.S. force remaining there.
They won't be able to accomplish these missions, so naturally the troop presence must be vastly increased. Another Vietnam, here we come!
Posted by: Herb McCoy

#15  Do Houthis, Hezb's, South American Drug Gangs, etc wear IRGC uniforms? No you disingenuous POS. Do they further Iranian hegemony (you recognize that term?)? Yes. FOAD
Posted by: Frank G   2019-05-31 18:59  

#14   I can't believe educated adults really think that Iran wants to conquer America, like an actual invasion with landing craft and everything.

Now you are changing definitions in mid-stream. And being a bit silly, IMHO.

War comes in many flavors, from the balls-to-the-wall peer-to-peer industrialized warfare we saw in WWII to the various low-level insurgencies we see around the globe. No one is arguing that Iran is preparing to invade CONUS or even Andalusia - sorry, I mean Spain, which was once a Muslim province. But we have been in a state of war with Iran since 1979. Or 1983 if you count the Marine barracks in Beirut. No coastal invasions, but continuing attacks on our facilities and interests around the world.

The recent shipping attacks may be a false flag, but more likely it's just the Iranians fucking with the Saudis. And it may not have been the Iranians directly, but one of their proxies. That's how it is done nowadays. Deniability and all that. At one time this would be important, but with the rise of America as a producer, the Straits of Hormuz isn't the big deal it used to be - at least as far as we're concerned.

You may be concerned that Bolton or one of our little pit bulls is barking up a storm. But without a stick, or threat of a stick, there is no carrot. Prediction: you will never see American boots on the ground in Iran. There is no reason for it. But that doesn't mean we won't bomb the crap out of some of their facilities. Does the name Gaddafi ring a bell? Assuming the Israelis don't beat us to the punch.

Like the man said, you may not be interesting in war but war is interested in you. The only questions are whether you acknowledge it and what you intend to do about it. Do you think an Iran with nukes wouldn't pass them along to one of their proxies?
Posted by: SteveS   2019-05-31 15:56  

#13  Accusing Iran of world conquest? I mean, come on. This is pure psychological projection. When you're guilty of something

You accuse me of wanting to conquer the world, Mr. McCoy?

Seriously?

What would I do with it? I’ve been to other parts of the world. Many of them I wouldn’t want to live in even as an expat spouse — shopping followed by tea on the veranda while native nursemaids take care of the children, native housemaids take care of the cleaning, and the native cook takes care of meals palls within a week. Let them rule themselves, and as long as they don’t feed jihadis at their breasts, I don’t care.

Go read Rantburg’s archives, Herb. Start on 9/11 and work your way forward to today. Then you'll have a better understanding of what the Mad Mullahs want, and how they think they’ll accomplish it much more cleverly than by open invasion.
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-05-31 15:16  

#12  You people actually think that Iran wants to conquer the entire world??

Even Cyrus the Great only got as far as Egypt and Asia Minor. Jesus. I can't believe educated adults really think that Iran wants to conquer America, like an actual invasion with landing craft and everything. And we need to declare war on them right now, by false flag if necessary, in order to avert this horrible fate.
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-05-31 13:55  

#11  Huh, no denial.
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-05-31 11:51  

#10  Accusing Iran of world conquest? I mean, come on. This is pure psychological projection.

While I have not personally received a hand-written declaration on the Ayatollah's offical stationary, I tend to give this a high probability of being true based on what the Ayatollahs have said in the past, the tenets of Islam, and the fact that Iran is an Islamic theocracy.
Posted by: SteveS   2019-05-31 11:36  

#9  Libya dropped its nuke and chem program when Ghaddafi saw his brother Lion of Islam dragged out of a reeking hole in the ground. It wasn't because the West asked nicely.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey   2019-05-31 10:17  

#8  What - no Gulf of Tonkin reference?
Posted by: Raj   2019-05-31 10:17  

#7  Ooh, the ad hominem insult! That's always a winning argument! How creative, too!

Accusing Iran of world conquest? I mean, come on. This is pure psychological projection. When you're guilty of something, you constantly accuse others of doing the same. It's like the person who accuses others of wanting to eat dicks - those are very likely his own unacceptable thoughts, and to get rid of them he's got to project them on others.
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-05-31 09:53  

#6  Can you tell me what I had for breakfast?

A dick with sauce?
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-05-31 04:51  

#5  Hey Herb. Did someone say what you quote here?

Re: Iran’s plan is to build nuclear bombs with which to control the world and force it to submit.

Mr. McCoy is quoting my in-line comment on the Page 49’d portion of the ery long article, Daniel. As to how I know, the Mad Mullahs have been proclaiming their plans at the start of every military parade since 1980. But even if they hadn’t, let us contemplate what it is that jihadis are required by Allah and the Prophet Mohamed’s perfect example to do, and compare to Iran’s actions in the intervening period, which I will address when I’m not falling asleep — though there are others here who can lay it all out considerably better than I. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-05-31 03:31  

#4  Hey Herb. Did someone say what you quote here? I sure don't know if that is ture, but I also don't know if it is false. Do you? If so, how do you know it? Do you read minds?
My recollection is that our strange and irrational behavior in Libya was done by the very same people who withdrew us from Iraq, which led to the horrors of ISIS.
They managed to make everyone treat us with disdain.
I wish you would tell us, with your insight, what exactly they were aiming for.
Posted by: Daniel   2019-05-31 03:03  

#3  The problem is that those who abandon their friends when tired of them soon have no more friends. Trump so far has not done that,
The key question is, if he abandons the Kurds and or the Saudis, will Kim or any sane Iranis trust him enough to make any concessions?
The Turks do have a long term problem. Kurds are having more children than other Turks, and will eventually become a majority in Turkey. Putin has a similar problem with Moslems in Russia. The Western Europeans have been seeking the same problem for reasons not very clear.
Their problem is that their native populations have turned against parenting, and they want enough new people to occupy their real estate.
We are in uncharted times.
Posted by: Daniel   2019-05-31 02:46  

#2  "Iran’s plan is to build nuclear bombs with which to control the world and force it to submit."

That's remarkable. How do you know this? Can you read minds? Can you tell me what I had for breakfast?

Libya got rid of its nuclear program at Western request and look what happened to it. As soon as it was verified to be disarmed, it was destroyed. Now, literal slave markets exist. Way to go, good job! War is always the answer!
Posted by: Herb McCoy   2019-05-31 02:43  

#1  Many (hopefully most) Americans want nothing to do with Syria, or the greater ME for that matter. But "we" will soldier on nonetheless...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-05-31 02:20  

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