Eomer, three questions for you:
1. How certain are you that Assad used chemical weapons?
2. What do you think the US should do?
3. What do you expect will happen as a result of that?
1. I'm not, and have stated as such. I can see the logic in rebels using them to incur an attack on the regime, and think that caution needs to be taken in getting involved in case that's actually what happened.
2. Dependent on what evidence of chemical weapons usage they're able to come up with. Anything from nothing to attacking strictly military targets, I suppose. No widespread bombing, shock and awe, no-fly zone, or actual invasion.
3. No fucking idea. Again, anything from nothing to Assad trying to gas Tel Aviv.
I'm by no means saying that the US should invade or effect regime change. Nor am I saying that there is any simple solutions here. It's a shit situation for everyone, and the outcome is almost impossible to predict.
Arbitrary_sl said:
Why are we going to take sides in a civil war in a country that has not acted with aggression against us?
Because one side has a history of violently suppressing and killing it's people, and may have used chemical weapons on innocent civilians.
Why is it the responsibility of the United States and other western powers to remove Assad from power?
Where did I say that this should be the immediate goal of any action?
Am I really supposed to believe that the reason we are about to kill a whole bunch of people in Syria and blow up a whole mess of their infrastructure is because Assad is bad and bad people should be removed from power?
Again, where did I advocate for extensive or widespread bombing of civilian infrastructure and/or regime change?
Why did we draw a line in the sand anyway?
Because the indiscriminate use of WMD's on civilians has always been a line in the sand, at least in modern times. It's not anything particularly new.
Why are we willing to aid Al-Qaeda when they have been called the greatest threat to the United States by high ranking officials multiple times?
We shouldn't be willing to directly aid or arm them. They are not the only active group in the region. Had the conflict been resolved much quicker, it's possible they wouldn't even have been a major factor. Unfortunately it dragged out long enough for them to get thousands of fighters in to the country. I'm not saying that direct military intervention should have come earlier, I'm just stating the simple fact that the rebels were not nearly as radicalized initially as they are now.