Syria will be the next place that The USA will need to clean up/protect/liberate/ ....

[Tx4obama]

Syria is planting landmines along border with Lebanon, witnesses and a Syrian official say - AP
http://twitter.com/#!/BreakingNews/status/131300306519736320

[peacebird]

1. America is the next place the US needs to clean up. We need our dollars spent

Helping our own country, rebuilding infrastructure, building and staffing free clinics, etc.

[Tx4obama]

3. Ah, so you want Saleh to just kill everyone ? You don't support the protesters? n/t

[peacebird]

9. No, but why is it up to us? We are talking about gutting the social safety net

because of our huge deficit, caused in great part by our adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time to spend a lot less on the military, and oversea adventures, and a lot more helping average Americans.

[Tx4obama]

10. Just because Bush ran up a HUGE deficit doesn't mean that ...

the USA should close its eyes to human civil rights violations/genocide in other parts of the world.

If WE in America allow dictators to KILL civilians, then what does that say about us?

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. you forgot your sarcasm tag

[peacebird]

17. I suppose all the civilians we killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are happy to have died for democracy?

I mean, it is totally okay for us to kil them as collateral damage, right? After all - freedom isn't free. :sarcasm:

[Tx4obama]

18. Send a letter to BUSH - tell him about it. n/t

[a la izquierda]

25. You simply MUST read a history book.

Do you know that we supported military/civilian dictators all over Latin America between the 1950s and the 1990s?? Do you know how many human rights violations that adds up to? In Guatemala alone the death toll is roughly 200,000. That's insanity. And it's just Latin America.

No, we absolutely don't need to do any of this. We do NOT need to throw our weight around in Syria.

[newfie11]

14. I agree with you. n/t

[bowens43]

2. yep. Obama loves playing with his soldiers.

watch for another war soon.

[Tx4obama]

4. It will NOT be a war. It will be a NATO mission like Libya.

Please pay attention at how the Obama Administration takes out dictators
without the huge loss of life and monetary costs like under the Bush administration.


Edited to fix typo :)

==

[mazzarro]

21. And what is the difference between a war and NATO mission?

People don't get killed? Or is it that people don't get tortured? So from your POV this is a case of our own doing a more merciful killing as opposed to their own being more ruthless? BTW - for other countries, the USA does not make distinction between various administration of the countries so long as that country is not subservient or a lapdog - i.e. Cuba.

[Prometheus Bound]

5. Since there is no chance whatsoever NATO and/or the US will get involved, you're on your own.

Perhaps we could start up a collection for a parachute and billy club for you.

[Wilms]

6. And where did they get the land mines?

Syria

Syria has not signed the Ottawa Convention and is a strong defender of the continued need for antipersonnel mines. It has stated that AP mines are an important weapon of defence against Israel. It is not a member of the CCW. Syria is not known to have produced or exported AP mines. It has imported large numbers of AP mines, but details are not available and there is no information available on its stockpile. Minefields have been laid in areas adjacent to the UN buffer zone. The Golan Heights are heavily mined with unmarked and unmapped minefields. The landmines found are from Russian, Czech, French and US origin.

http://www.euromesco.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=144%3Apaper-11-the-antipersonnel-landmines-issue-in-the-mediterranean&catid=102%3Aprevious-papers&Itemid=102&lang=en

[pampango]

7. No. It's the UN's call, not the US'. Just like Libya.

No one - the US, NATO, Turkey, etc. - should, not will, intervene in Syria without authorization from the UN. They weren't going to intervene in Libya without it and they are even less likely to do so in Syria.

So far the UN won't even go as far as to send a nasty letter to Assad. He knows this. The Syrians themselves will eventually kick him out as Tunisians and Egyptians did to their dictators.

Juan Cole: Why a No-Fly Zone won’t Work in Syria

http://www.juancole.com/2011/10/why-a-no-fly-zone-wont-work-in-syria.html

Most important, a no-fly zone is not a practical response to the Baath government’s repression. On Friday, troops just shot into the crowds. Unlike Qaddafi, Bashar al-Assad is not bombing his cities with jets from the air. Nor are helicopter gunships or tank units central to the coercive abilities of the Syrian state. Syrian geography is complex, and plinking tanks from the air is not an option in Syria.

There is no Arab League resolution urging intervention in Syria. There is no United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing war. In the absence of a UNSC resolution, any attack on Syria would be considered an act of aggression and could open US politicians and military men to prosecution in international courts.

Russia and China are against Western intervention, which dooms any condemnatory resolution at the UN security council. In international law since 1945, especially in the UN charter, the only grounds for going to war are self-defense or as a result of a UNSC resolution. Neither obtains in Syria and any foreign intervention would therefore be illegal, and the pilots could be tried in international courts.

It breaks my heart to say all this. The youth of Syria is being cold-bloodedly shot down by army snipers. You wish there was a way to stop it. But there isn’t. There isn’t a practical set of military tactics outsiders could deploy effectively in this situation. There is no international framework of legality for an intervention.

But it should be remembered that the political wing of the Syrian opposition in any case does not want such an intervention, and that most Syrians are determined to go it alone. They want to do what the Tunisians and Egyptians did. They should be given a chance, since that would be the best outcome possible.

[JCMach1]

8. Not a chance... no oil in Syria.

[pampango]

13. There's oil (their main export) but I agree there's no chance of US involvement.

Main exports: crude oil, minerals, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton fiber, clothing, meat and live animals, wheat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Syria

[JCMach1]

20. or not enough to concern US

[LanternWaste]

27. Much like Bosnia.

Much like Bosnia.

[Syrinx]

11. you're saying Obama will bomb Syria?

[DCBob]

12. NATO rules out Syria intervention..

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/11/201111103948699103.html

But the US might get involved in other ways should they see a real opportunity to take out yet another dictator.

[MadHound]

16. No oil there,

So we will do very little.

[HereSince1628]

19. But are there routes for oil pipelines to the med?

Pipeline routes have also been part of the 'strategic' concerns of the great game.

[leveymg]

22. I could show you the pictures of how we clean up/protect/liberate Arab places

but won't. You should already know.

Hope you didn't mean that literally.

[Fumesucker]

23. Unrecced with extreme prejudice..

We need to clean up our own house before we start fucking with even more other people's lives.

[quinnox]

24. Nah, America has lost all moral authority, and unrec

after intervening in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the epic failures and chaos America has brought to those countries. Time for America to meekly and ashamedly, with our heads bowed, withdraw from the world's stage for a time, and try and fix the crumbling mess here at home. It requires all of our attention for sure, tons of problems in our country.

America has no business or moral authority whatsoever to play world's policeman, it would be like Ted Bundy, the serial killer who was executed, put in charge of security for a womens college fraternity.

Indeed, we owe the world an apology for the last ten years.

[TBF]

26. My short list is Iran and Algeria -

Iran has a lot of oil; Algeria has resources as well and would continue the march across the top of Africa.

Edited to add visual - map of Africa: