I honestly wish I knew why we can't just remove Assad from the face of the earth.

[lindysalsagal]

Part of me wonders if he's left there for political reasons.....Wish I didn't have to wonder. I wish I had more confidence in my own country....

[fleabiscuit]

1. It's a declaration of war. nt

[hibbing]

2. The U.S. has supported and still supports despots

We are selective in our use of force depending on corporate interests.

Peace

[bronxiteforever]

31. In this case Putin and thermonuclear war may have something to do with it

[fleabiscuit]

40. Well ya, we put up with Nixon for quite some time.

However, deliberately attacking and killing the president of a country would be a de facto declaration of war.

[hibbing]

42. Not sure what you mean

The U.S. has eliminated legitimately elected leaders/presidents of countries via nefarious means to be replaced by U.S. puppets. War was never declared in those instances. Nor did it result in direct military conflict. Sorry, late and I'm a bit fuzzy.

Peace

[fleabiscuit]

44. Well we're not totally stupid.

The US usually picks on the weak. We lost Vietnam because they were fighting for their own county with Soviet help. If Assad or Vlad bombed the WH and took out Trump we'd be at war before the dust settled.

[3catwoman3]

3. This SOB is a...

...freaking DOCTOR, for God's sake, Or was. How can he live with himself, being willing to be responsible for so much killing?

[PoliticAverse]

4. Did you notice what happened to Iraq when Sadaam was removed? n/t

[Cha]

14. As so many predicted

before bush/cheney bombed Baghdad.

[bronxiteforever]

30. Agree. Cheney said that we will be greeted with Flowers and chocolates

[Roland99]

19. Ayup. Power vacuum

[David__77]

5. That would be a terrible mistake for us to make.

...

[Heartstrings]

6. and it will cone back to bite us ten fold.....nt

[mercuryblues]

7. Because he hasn't promised

to take trump with him

[procon]

8. Confidence?

Do you understand what you're advocating for? We've already seen the results of unending wars and forced regime changes in the heavy cost of our own blood and treasure, but no lessons learned yet? Remember at all the other dictators we've had a hand in removing and then what happened afterward when the resulting power vacuum attracted the worst scum imaginable, and you want more of that?

I wonder why anyone would expect the US to fix all the problems of the ME while giving a pass to all the regional stakeholders who aren't making any sort of a coordinated effort to secure a viable peace anywhere. The world is full of brutal dictators, so must the US go from one country to the next to clean them all out?

[Garrett78]

9. Typically, the US props up brutal dictators. The list is very, very long.

So, yeah, it's certainly not realistic to expect the US to go around and remove brutal dictators from power.

[area51]

15. Great points, thank you. n/t

[lindysalsagal]

16. regional stakeholders who aren't making any sort of a coordinated effort to secure a viable peace

You're right, of course.

[anneboleyn]

34. Amen! Excellent post procon! I cant believe that Ive heard ANYONE supporting the remove Assad

nonsense with the pile of disasters we have in our own history of removing uncooperative dictators to replace them with more cooperative dictators only to have the entire thing fall apart and result in disaster, especially for the people of the country we were “saving.”

Honestly I’ve been shocked by some of the posts on DU since last night supporting the air strikes and asking why we can’t temove Assad...as though Iraq never happened (and the gazillion other examples).

Also, we have our own issues that need sorting — constant interventions and world policing is not helping. Not to mention that I don’t trust this administration on these matters either...

[JI7]

10. Russia and Iran Support him so it would be War with them also

[TreasonousBastard]

11. We removed Qaddafi, Hussein, and a few others...

and things got worse. As bad as these guys may be, getting rid of them leaves a power vacuum and all hell breaks loose.

[briv1016]

12. This guy.

[rusty quoin]

13. Trump is blowing up everything

Who knows what we should do with the stable genius changing things day to day?

[malaise]

17. So you believe that you can just remove leaders from sovereign countries anywhere

and then you're upset that others want to interfere in the US?

Imperialism and racism are live and well.

[cwydro]

22. Unbelievable, is it not?

Regime change has always worked so well for the US.

[malaise]

23. What's good for us is not good for you

Bangs head.

[cwydro]

24. Indeed.

[anneboleyn]

35. I cant believe it either. There have been a few of these post and it just seems surreal to me given

the fact that we are STILL dealing with the disaster of Iraq/Afghanistan not to mention that we are talking about the totally incompetent Trump plus mad war monger Bolton telling us that we must act right now on Assad...

[oberliner]

18. Why stop there?

[bitterross]

32. Thank you. I believe I understand your implication.

My first thought when I saw the post was "Who are we to remove him?" I realize the US has long had the reputation of global police officer and good guy. However, the more we find out about how the CIA overthrew democracies and now, given that we've created more problems in the Middle East than we've remedied that reputation seems rather undeserving.

We really seem to be more like the British Empire and the East India company of old. Not too flattering an idea. We really have absolutely no grounds upon which to stand when it comes to giving moral and ethical direction to others.

[FarCenter]

20. Executive Order 12333 bans assassination of foreign "leadership targets"

https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/bciclr/26_1/01_FMS.htm

It is from the 1970s following revelation of the assassination attempts on Fidel Castro.

Practically speaking, it is hard enough to protect US leaders without having foreign states sponsoring assassination attempts on them.

[Atman]

21. Not as good a profit margin for the MIC.

Why quickly cap him in the head when you can spend $250 million in bombs?

[Rustyeye77]

25. Never thought I would see that on a progressive forum

Just wow.

[anneboleyn]

36. Me either. Ive seen a few of these and they seem very out of place here.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

26. And replace him with what? A government of the people, by the people, etc?

That has worked so well in Libya and Iraq.

We're good at breaking things, not so good at improving things.

[radius777]

27. Neutering him is better, we don't need nation building.

What happened in Iraq and Libya should be a cautionary tale, that we can't impose democracy on a part of the world that has never had it.

As Bill and Barack both did, we should contain/neuter these dictators, assist in multinational coalitions, and steadily support pro-democracy movements in those areas - but we should never take it upon ourselves as W did to engage in nation building, which drained America dry and led to the formation of ISIS, etc.

[rockfordfile]

28. That reads like something trump would write.

For one thing Syria for a number of years is a Russian state. You would have to invade that country.

[ucrdem]

29. Bolton would just move down the list

to the next neocon target.

[oberliner]

38. Iran

[ucrdem]

39. I can see it.

[triron]

33. Same with Trump; he may be worse.

[WhiteTara]

37. The same reason some other government doesn't come

in and assassinate our president. That is NOT our country. Perhaps you need to do some more thinking about this matter.

[Blue_true]

41. Lots of people fear that if he gets removed.

Islamist will be primed to take over Syria. Real or imagined, that seem to be holding back some countries. It seems ok to punch him in the nose when he acts up, but no bombing of his residences to try to kill him.

[Tarc]

43. You're spouting textbook neoconservatism there, y'know

[Oneironaut]

45. Removing Assad is quite possibly the worst foreign policy idea ever.

I don't understand how our government didn't learn their lesson from Iraq. A power vacuum would open up, and would be quickly filled by extremists.

Our involvement in Syria is pointless. We have no plan, and some of the groups we supported are just as bad as ISIS.

Just giving Syria to Russia and Iran is the best thing that could possibly happen. The country just needs to be stabilized.It doesn't matter who has the most power there.