Whether Syrian Muslims kill each other with chemical weapons, guns, bombs, or their bare hands, Allah can help them. They don’t need the U.S. We already blame ourselves for precipitating outbursts of violence inspired by Islam (see: Americans Are Not to Blame for Savagery in the Muslim World). How can our government be so foolish as to get involved in sectarian bloodshed and a conflict that we know will only cause us more pain?
John McCain gave us every reason we need to keep out of Syria: Egypt, Hezbollah, Iran, and Iraq.¹ Then he drew the wrong conclusion as he joined with Lindsey Graham to whip up Washington to escalate U.S. intervention.
Democracy for Syrian Muslims will follow Muslim Brotherhood’s jihad?
There is a difference between making things right and fighting for control. Do U.S. leaders think we will have more influence than Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as it calls for jihad in Syria, using the conflict as an opportunity to get the upper hand in what we mistakenly see as a fight for the people? Iran and Hezbollah’s pot-stirring are not going to go away because we flooded the country with U.S. arms, no matter how curious we are as to who will end up with our weapons.
Religious and sectarian violence won’t lead to democracy.
The fact that calls for a holy war transcend national boundaries should clue us in that we are dealing with a lot more than Assad’s oppression in Syria. How many times is Washington going to go down this road? Our hapless leaders insist that Islamic nations adopt democracy when democracy is only an excuse to instill new regimes that are likely to be at least as oppressive as those being ousted and may well decide to end rule by the people once and for all.
Not too long ago we cheered the coming of democracy to Egypt:
The United States will continue to stand with the Egyptian people, and those across the region, as they defend universal values and work toward a better future for all Egyptians.²
Egypt chose the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement that had been banned from politics for years.
Can the U.S. admit why we want to provide guns to fuel a holy war?
America is fearful of having fingers pointed at us for not coming out strongly enough against weapons of mass destruction. Instead of appealing to the U.S. for support when they have no other option, insurgents in the Middle East should appeal to Allah. After all, the real battle is between their choice of Muslim beliefs and how their governments put those beliefs into play. Until Syrian Muslims can join with their neighbors and decide what version of their one God will lead to the least suffering, the best the U.S. will accomplish is embroiling itself in a holy war, something we should have the good sense to avoid.
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