Syria: "it's a show about nothing!"

There's a scene near the end of Lawrence of Arabia in which British General Allenby (played by Jack Hawkins) and a British diplomat by the name of Dryden (Claude Rains) looking out a window at the commotion in a city which has just been liberated from the Turks by the Lawrence-led "Arab revolution". Fires are raging, there is no water, and as the characters speak, the lights go out. The city is Damascus, today the capital of Syria.

Although the British are nominally in charge, Allenby explains, the Arabs are running the show, and the city is rapidly descending into chaos.
"What do you propose to do?" asks Dryden.
"Nothing," replies Allenby. "Sometimes in a crisis, nothing is the best thing to do."

Nothing is exactly what the West is doing about what has been described for months now as the "civil war" in Syria. Once again Damascus is being shelled, fires are raging, refugees are streaming out -- the same scene only 94 years later.

The liberals, "progressive thinkers" and believers in the Useless Nations (and the Tooth Fairy) are screaming that Something Must Be Done about that awful Assad. "We" -- meaning the USA -- should attack Syria immediately, they cry, to make Syria and the Middle East safe for democracy, advance the human rights of the oppressed people, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Yes, "everyone" agrees. The leaders of the free world -- President O'Bama, Hellery Clinton, and, errr, others -- make solemn pronouncements and angry denunciations every day, and say that they'd do Something right sharpish, if it weren't for those damned Russkis and Chinks who won't let them do Anything. So, Nothing is what gets done.

Walt is beginning to suspect that inaction is the Prez's secret plan for dealing with the Syrian "crisis". Think about it! This is an election year. In his quest for a totally undeserved second term, President O doesn't want another unpopular and unwinnable war on his record.

On his watch, so far, the US has given up on the Bush war (Iraq), and is backing out of the Obama war (Afghanistan) with indecent haste. As for Libya, America pretty much sat out that little show, and let the Brits and French and Canucks struggle for 90 days to oust a madman who had no air force, and tanks with one speed forward and five in reverse.

Trouble is, all this fighting for democracy, freedom and civilization is costing a fortune! A good chunk of Obama's extraordinary budget deficit is attributable to the cost -- millions of dollars per hour -- of sustaining invasions of sand traps in the Middle East. And let's not forget about the cost in blood and lives.

The Prez and his handlers are anything but dumb. They can see that to embark on a fourth invasion of a Middle Eastern state -- one that would surely put up a better fight than Libya -- would pretty much write finis to the Democrats' campaign.

So... the smart thing to do would seem to be to sit back and wait. This time, let the Arabs sort each other out. Besides, who knows which is the right horse to back? There's a major problem with faulty intelligence about the Syrian government and the rebels. [You might call our intelligence half-Assad. Ed.]

The State Department, if it were capable of telling the truth, would admit that, despite their vast [or half-vast. Ed.] infrastructure of spies and satellites, they really don’t know very much about what goes on in the Middle East or anywhere else. For example, the American invasion of Iraq was based on the belief it had the capacity to unleash chemical and biological terror on the world with its so-called "weapons of mass destruction".

That turned out to be either a mistaken belief or a deliberate deception -- you choose -- yet many countries supported the invasion was based on that belief. So did the majority of the American people... at one time. But that was then and that was Iraq.

This is now, and this is Syria. It seems probable that Syria does have huge stores of poison gas and other deadly chemicals, not to mention fleets of aircraft, tanks and so on supplied by our friends the Russians. It would be insane to expect Assad not to throw everything he's got at any invading forces. So who wants to lead the attack this time?

Walt can almost hear Obama saying discretion is the better part of valour. Better to watch, wait to see how long Assad can hold out, and hope someone or something better will replace him. If that doesn't work, well, the election will be over by the time we find out.