The semper paratus Island Dweller puts charcoal to the cave wall to write in:

Most August Majesty:

There is a phrase being bandied about by both sides on the Syria issue, to wit: “Boots on the ground.”

Everyone using this phrase seems to think it applies to regular US troops, or Special Forces troops, who could be sent into Syria on the ground. What most people do not connect this phrase with is the worrisome eventuality it will – not might – also refer to the plight of a shot-down flier. I would submit at that point the US will most definitely have “boots on the ground.” It will also have propelled this country into another hostage situation we do not have the national means – or stomach within the National Command Authority – to deal with forcefully.

Of all people, Sen McCain should recognize this.

The current scenarios all envision hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of munitions being expended on targets within Syria. Expended munitions stocks must (if you’re doing this properly) be replenished, which effectively at least doubles the monetary rate of expenditure related to weapons. How much of that treasure is Dear Leader prepared to expend to win the release of just one American POW? Or are we going to witness another sorry spectacle of an American prisoner or MIA being expended knowingly by their government for the sake of political expediency?

There are no “good guys” in Syria – there are just “guys.” Until the case is made with at least an overwhelming perponderance of evidence (if not outright proof) about who used what chemicals where and when, we need to remain out. Afterward, we don’t proceed alone – we hold Mr. Putin to his word about waiting until the culprit is fully identified, and then dealing with it – in company with the Arab League and the EU. Anything else is begging for trouble.

ID

The Syria situation is incredible; indeed, it seems as if the State Department has managed to find the biggest poophole country in the world that doesn’t technically hate us, and now fully intends to attack it and weaponize it against us.

There is zero upside to attacking Syria. And let us face facts: the arguments in favor of hitting Syria are not particularly strong. “We have to punish Bashar al-ʾAsad for his use of WMDs.” Why? Did we punish Saddam Hussein in 1988? “We have to show other governments they cannot develop WMDs like this!” So why not hit Iran? “If we don’t attack Syria, we will be giving the world permission to use WMDs in the future!” Ridiculous. Since the end of World War I how many countries have employed chemical weapons? Two: Nazi Germany against the Jews, and Iraq against Iran and the Kurds. You cannot even decisively prove Syria used these weapons. Hate to say it, but the Russians have a pretty convincing argument that the rebels dropped a canister of gas they got from the Saudis. While the Czar does not accept the Russian claims without skepticism, let us say the Obama administration’s evidence is equally as bad as the Russians’ evidence.

A growing number of political analysts on both sides of the aisle are moving to concurrence that Obama is on the thinnest ice imaginable here, and that he may already have trashed his legacy with this. Of course, this will likely wind up like all his other major fights: he will back down, change the subject, and pretend this never happened. But the talk coming out of his camp right now…well, it is a little scary. Most un-Presidential. And maybe a little anti-American. Time will tell.

Sadly, it will tell quite soon.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.