The War Waging Within



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/opinion/dowd-shadow-of-a-doubt.html?_r=0


This article, also from the New York Times, urges the readers and political officials to take notes from America's history regarding the upcoming military movement against Syria, so we don't make the same mistakes we did in the past.

Dowd brings up an interesting point when she says "The president who got elected on his antiwar stance is now trying to buck up a skittish Congress and country about why a military strike is a moral necessity."  Barak Obama was the one to bring our troops home from Iraq, and I can imagine he is facing a difficult decision now, especially when America can still remember the effect Operation Desert Storm had on the troops and their families back home.  We are all afraid Syria will be another difficult time like that was.

However. on the other side of the coin, it is Un-American to just sit back and watch others suffer at the hands of a corrupt government.  Even if it is not our fight, we have always been the ones to step in for the people.  The decision  to attack Syria is a war waging within us; we fear it will be another Iraq, and yet we cannot let our morality slip. 

Also there are practical national safety elements to discuss, such as whether the Syrian government truly does have the chemical weapons it boasts of, and what would happen if they fell into the hands of a more capable enemy of the free world.  Obama might be anti-war, but he may have to base his decision on a broader picture; our security here in the States.

I believe that America was founded based on the kind of morals that can't and should not be set aside, even if we fear the worst.  What separates us from most of the world is our fundamental need to help others.  If even one more school, church, or library full of people gets gassed to death in Syria while all these American politicians are making up their minds, then its a crying shame.

ARTICLE: Dowd, Maureen. "Shadow of a Doubt." Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.