The Distracting Blur Called A 'Red Line'

Syria has dominated the news for the past week.

For a week, the news media has been stuck on who is saying what and leaning which direction as far as actions, be they military, economic or diplomatic, in Syria.

In the grand scheme of things, it really is not that important of an issue, or at least it should not be.

We have the slowest and worst "recovery" from a recession or depression in our history.

We have nearly $17T in national debt, with a huge revenue problem and a worse spending problem.

Yes, we have a revenue problem. The tax code along with the new taxes imposed by the PPACA have been chipping away at the tax base. Fewer and fewer people are paying taxes. While unemployment was reported down to 7.3%, the workforce is the smallest it has been in 35 years. That means fewer people are working or bothering to even try to look for work. The number of people working part-time is high, as well. Many of them are doing so because they can't find full-time work. Others gave up looking for full-time work, knowing they can pay fewer taxes and get some amount of government handout if they keep to part-time. That is also bad news. That news amounts to fewer people paying, and those who are paying taxes are paying less because they fell a bracket.

We have all the other problems with the PPACA including skyrocketing insurance premiums.

We have in immigration problem of epidemic proportions, including diseases that come with them. Drug trafficking is on the rise. So is human trafficking and sex slavery.

We have tyrants trying to convince idiots that forcing law-abiding citizens to give up their guns will somehow keep violent criminals from doing violent crime.

Our nation is a mess. We need our house to be in order before we start interfering in other nations.

So somebody used Sarin gas (and other CBRNE weapons) in Syria. Some evidence points squarely at Assad's regime. Other evidence points fingers at the Al Q'aeda backed rebels. Those rebels have allegedly also slaughtered entire towns of Coptic Christians.

Is this evil? Yes. Should it be stopped? Yes. Should we necessarily do something now? No.

How many YEARS after Saddam Hussein used CBRNE weapons on the Kurds in Northern Iraq did we finally take decisive action? April 1987 was the first confirmed use. We attacked in early 2003. We even had minor actions in between that stopped short of taking any such action after Saddam crossed that "red line". He had to invade Kuwait for us to take action in 1990. We didn't go after his WMDs until 2003. That is 16 years.

In Syria we have a case of two enemies, National Socialist Ba'athists and Al Q'aeda, trying to eliminate each other. Neither seems to care much about those caught in the crossfire, though the regime seems to at least pretend to care, at times. GEN Dempsey has stated that there is no clearly defined objective in regards to Syria, unlike Iraq or Afghanistan. Action in Syria would closer resemble our operations in Somalia, only more dangerous, with one of the factions be far better armed, trained, and equipped.

So, the media and the White House have Congress all in a tizzy-fit over Syria. Meanwhile, a key vote concerning the budget and the financing of the PPACA are on the horizon. This issue just delays those important legislative actions. That makes the whole urgency-spin seem more to be a smokescreen while the PPACA can gets kicked further down the road. The reason for kicking it so far down the road is that Obama hopes the street lights come on and everybody has to go home before the can is brought back in bounds.

The major congressional floor action on Syria is scheduled for September 11, 2013. That is the 12 year anniversary of when the group comprising the rebels in Syria flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. That is the perfect day to say "Hell No!" to any action that benefits that terrorist organization or any of their allies. September 11th is also the one-year anniversary of when that same terrorist group raped, brutalized, and murdered Ambassador Chris Stephens and three others in Benghazi, Libya. There is an even more recent reason to say "Hell No!"

Yes, a line was drawn in the sand and yes, somebody crossed it. Let's get all of the information on who did what and when, though. Let's be clear and correct on who the evil parties are. Let's get our house in order while the investigations and analysis are figuring out the truth. Then, and only then, we should crush all the guilty parties on both sides who are using CBRNE WNDs. But, as long as it is staying inside their borders and not spilling over into our allies in Jordan or Israel, maybe we should sit back and watch for a while.