The shelling continues in the Syrian city of Homs as activists say that close to 200 people have been killed in the last two days. President Obama has said that the “world cannot be bystanders” as the slaughter continues, but the international community is at a loss over what to do. Anne Marie Slaughter, a Princeton professor and former director at the State Department, and the Nation's Jeremy Scahill, get into an intense debate over whether the United States should intervene militarily.
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Over the past decade, Americans watched in bafflement and rage as one institution after another – from Wall Street to Congress, the Catholic Church to corporate America, even Major League Baseball – imploded under the weight of corruption and incompetence. In the wake of the Fail Decade, Americans have historically low levels of trust in their institutions; the social contract between ordinary citizens and elites lies in tatters.
How did we get here? With "Twilight of the Elites," Christopher Hayes offers a radically novel answer. Since the 1960s, as the meritocracy elevated a more diverse group of men and women into power, they learned to embrace the accelerating inequality that had placed them near the very top. Their ascension heightened social distance and spawned a new American elite--one more prone to failure and corruption than any that came before it.
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I wonder if a month of tank busting would help bring Assad to his senses. He seems to be operating in a world without consequence. If the consequence was that his tanks suddenly stopped existing, and nothing else, he might change his current attitude. There's no way we need to invade Syria, but Desert Storm showed that we are very good at eliminating heavy equipment quickly and fairly safely (for us). Once that's done, at least the playing field is more level.
The debate on this issue was really interesting. Obviously, the situation in Syria is complicated and american intervention could potentially make things worse. But, in my opinion, it is a risk that should be taken. Innocent men and women are being slaughtered while trying to free themselves from a totalitarian regime; how can the US not intervene when they have been obsessively preaching about democracy for the last 15 years?
Americans talk about their exceptionalism - it is time to show what that means. Because as complex as the situation is, I will never argue for standing aside while innocents are being killed. The entire western world should be involved in saving them.
I can't believe the Americans were totally willing to invade Irak, against the rest of the world, but are not hesitating to save civilians being killed by their goverment... I am no expert in US foreign policy, far from that, but I can't see how doing nothing can be defended as the 'appropriate' thing to do.