Weekend Economists Kickoff the Season, September 6-8, 2013

[Demeter]

12. It’s A Cold World: Why We Shouldn’t Bomb Syria by Jeremy Gruenbaum

mjayrosenberg.com/2013/09/06/its-a-cold-world-why-we-shouldnt-bomb-syria-by-jeremy-gruenbaum/


There should be a punishment for anyone who uses chemical weapons to kill people. It seems to me that in a perfect world, the only acceptable punishment would be to remove Assad from power and either kill him or charge him in the ICC. The problem is, you can’t just remove a dictator and expect everything to work out. Iraq taught us that. It’s a lesson we can’t afford to forget.

The only way I’d support removing Assad by force would be if the entire UN Security Council agreed AND all the countries contributing to the military effort guaranteed that they’d provide adequate troops to secure Syria after Assad is gone. That means something like maybe 300,000-500,000 troops (including troops from China and Russia) for up to a decade. In other words, a huge commitment no country should have to make.

Of course, no one is talking about a decade-long, international occupation of Syria. They’re talking about unilateral “limited airstrikes” that won’t remove Assad from power. What is their purpose? They’re just empty gestures to make us feel better about ourselves. There’s a good chance Assad, backed into a corner, would lash out at Syrians again, or perhaps at US interests in the region. Certainly we should expect that Al Qaeda and other anti-US terror groups in the region would try to attack US/Israeli interests across the Middle East.

And what if Assad continues massacring his people after we attack? The world will expect us to do something. Either we do these “limited airstrikes” indefinitely, or we have to up the ante and invade...

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