Letters: Leave Syria to the Syrians
Re “The road to Damascus,” Editorial, Sept. 10
The Times dispassionately explains the challenges faced by the Obama administration in selling the case for action against Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria.
Members of the administration have been spending an immense amount of energy and media time making the case that the U.S. is compelled to act against Syria. The American people just aren’t buying this, so your tone seems wishy-washy on a matter that deserves a voice.
Allow me to do you the favor: The United States is not compelled and should not act in the Syrian civil war. Getting involved in the Syrian conflict is a slippery slope. It’s the same game as the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Assad’s regime has committed horrible acts against its own people, which is exactly the point: Not one of the victims was American.
Syria is at war with itself. What business is it of ours to intervene?
Tatiana Coover
Corona
In 1962, Ambassador Adlai Stevenson publicly presented to the United Nations the evidence amassed by the Kennedy administration showing the ongoing installation of missile launch sites by the Soviet Union in Cuba. Consequently, our government earned the support of both Americans and other nations for potential intervention by the U.S. military.
That no military action was ultimately necessary — because the Soviet Union backed down — provides strong validation for the approach taken by the Kennedy administration. Showing the proof that merits action was regarded as crucial 50 years ago.
This demanding criterion must no longer be ignored by modern leaders seeking military intervention, especially when it concerns the internal affairs of sovereign nations.
Greg Odorizzi
Lafayette, Colo.
As much as I dislike the idea of bombing Syria, it seems the president’s drive to do so has created the pressure on both Russia and Syria to find a solution. Hopefully, Congress will keep up the pressure.
For an antiwar liberal like me, it’s hard to acknowledge that a call for war has actually created an opportunity to avoid it.
Thomas McGovern
San Bernardino
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