Great video from Yaron Brook regarding the potential (likely?) United States intervention in the Syrian civil war. (Click here to skip down to the video.) This is same position, though much more completely, that I took in a recent letter to my state’s congressional delegation.
I have received responses from both our state’s Senators, and while both express objections to or reservations on the President’s proposal, they are sadly lacking in principle. I am excerpting from their responses, but I don’t believe that I am misrepresenting their views by doing so. (I have uploaded the full texts for those who care to read them.)
From Senator Patrick Leahy:
I criticized that proposal for being far too broad and open-ended. …
I remain skeptical of the United States acting alone, and about what comes after.
From Senator Bernie Sanders who it should be remembered was once the sole socialist member of the US House of Representatives:
Congress has difficulty today focusing on the very serious issues facing our country: the disappearing middle class, high unemployment, low wages, the high cost of college, the decline of our manufacturing sector and the planetary crisis of global warming. …
Third, I am concerned that the United States would be going into a war almost unilaterally without the support of the United Nations or NATO.
So in neither response was there any attention paid to whether there are actual American national self-interests at risk in the Syrian conflict. Their objections are that we are acting alone- suggesting that if other “allies” were involved then they would support it, that the proposal is too broad- suggesting that they would be ok with a more specific and defined request, or that we have problems here at home that require collectivist/altruist action- suggesting that in better economic times altruist action abroad could be supported.
Fine presentation here. Both Senator’s responses are an embarrassment by suggesting US dependency on the UN or other countries is a condition of our foreign policy. Order from chaos is right!
Keep fighting the good fight!
Best, Cary
Thanks for your comment, and the Like. I was disappointed, though not particularly surprised, by their responses. I think very few people in Congress today actually work from principles. Instead the work from a very range-of-the-moment, pragmatic point of view which leads to the contradictory actions we see in our foreign policy. I might disagree with them if they did act on principle in support of the President’s proposal, but at least I could give them credit for being principled, even if their principle is wrong.