{"id":30548,"date":"2012-10-08T13:13:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/08\/oh-yes-please-lets-escalate-us-military-involvement-in-yet-another-middle-east.html"},"modified":"2012-10-08T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T19:13:09","slug":"oh-yes-please-lets-escalate-us-military-involvement-in-yet-another-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/08\/oh-yes-please-lets-escalate-us-military-involvement-in-yet-another-middle-east.html","title":{"rendered":"Oh, yes, please, let&#39;s escalate US military involvement in yet another Middle-East&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Oh, yes, please, let&#39;s escalate US military involvement in yet another Middle-East conflict<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Because, of course, first you start with providing arms. Then advisors. Then maybe some boots-on-the-ground special forces teams (to protect, or rescue, the advisors, or maybe lend a hand). \u00a0Then bombing campaigns. \u00a0Then &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>And all with promises that the next escalation will bring down the existing regime \/ rebels \/ bad guys.<\/p>\n<p>I guess Romney remains so pro-Vietnam War that he wants to see another one in Syria. And just as that one conflict was a proxy war with the Soviet Union, this one&#39;s a proxy war with Iran. Because if anything will make Iran back down it will be US military intervention in Syria &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I&#39;ll confess, I don&#39;t have a ready answer for the best course for Syria. \u00a0I&#39;d be quite pleased if an anvil fell on Assad&#39;s head and all that, but it&#39;s not at all clear to me (or as clear as it is to Romney&#39;s Neo-Con advisors) that arming the rebels will actually make a difference, or that doing so will garner us the permanent, fervent US allies that Romney&#39;s claiming we&#39;ll get out of it.<\/p>\n<p style='clear:both;'>\n<p style='margin-bottom:5px;'><strong>Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style='height:120px;width:120px;overflow:hidden;float:left;margin-top:0px;padding-top:0px;margin-right:10px;vertical-align:top;text-align:center;clear:both;'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img style='max-width:none;' src='https:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&#038;gadget=a&#038;resize_h=100&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.guim.co.uk%2Fsys-images%2FGuardian%2FPix%2Fpictures%2F2012%2F10%2F5%2F1349419513780%2FMitt-Romney-010.jpg' border='0' \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2012\/oct\/08\/mitt-romney-arm-syrian-rebels'>Ewen MacAskill<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRepublican presidential candidate is to call for an escalation of the conflict in Syria in a major foreign policy address\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p style='clear:both;'> <strong>Google+:<\/strong> <a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/101083456815352083930\/posts\/bgt6PxznnMC' target='_new'>View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh, yes, please, let&#39;s escalate US military involvement in yet another Middle-East conflict Because, of course, first you start with providing arms. Then advisors. Then maybe some boots-on-the-ground special forces teams (to protect, or rescue, the advisors, or maybe lend a hand). \u00a0Then bombing campaigns. \u00a0Then &#8230; And all with promises that the next escalation &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/08\/oh-yes-please-lets-escalate-us-military-involvement-in-yet-another-middle-east.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Oh, yes, please, let&#39;s escalate US military involvement in yet another Middle-East&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30779,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/syria-as-irans-route-to-the-sea-round-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":0},"title":"Syria as Iran&#39;s &quot;route to the sea&quot; (Round 2)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Oct-12 1:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Actually, the more Romney's supporters\u00a0keep defending the \"non-issue\" of Romney's odd semantics changing \"Syria is an ally of Iran and could serve as a base for Iranian naval vessels in the Mediterranean\" into \"Syria is Iran's route to the sea\", the odder the assertion gets.In the National Review Online's analysis,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136120,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/13\/trump-speaks-on-syria.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":1},"title":"Trump Speaks on Syria","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-18 7:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, that little speech was weird. The man goes veering off into weird paths when he's not reading the teleprompter -- and you can tell every time he does, because his ability to read off the teleprompter (oh, the irony!) is bloody awful -- weird pacing, an inability to pace\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Trump-contemplative.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30776,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/23\/syria-as-irans-route-to-the-sea.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":2},"title":"Syria as Iran&#39;s &quot;route to the sea&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Oct-12 8:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"'Secondly, Syria's an opportunity for us because Syria plays an important role in the Middle East, particularly right now. Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the route for them to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which threatens, of course, our ally Israel.\u00a0'On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133231,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/08\/i-am-guided-by-the-beauty-of-our-weapons.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":3},"title":"&quot;I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Apr-17 12:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I get it. Blowing the snot out of stuff (even if it's back in operation 24 hours later) can feel cathartic. Syria is a toxic hot mess of terrorists, tyrants, geopolitical opportunists, and war criminals, with large dollops of human misery and suffering and refugees to highlight all those points.And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133222,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/06\/the-fiscally-conservative-except-for-military-spending-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":4},"title":"The &quot;Fiscally Conservative Except For Military Spending&quot; President","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Apr-17 10:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The attached article says about 70 Tomahawk missiles were lobbed at Syria. The reports I saw said more like 50 [2]. Charitably attributing the lower number, that was an expense of between $25 million and $75 million.I'll note that the EPA programs around preventing lead paint exposure to children and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128890,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/18\/yes-lets-vigorously-support-what-daesh-explicitly-says-it-wants.html","url_meta":{"origin":30548,"position":5},"title":"Yes, let&#039;s vigorously support what Da&#039;esh explicitly says it wants","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Nov-15 5:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Is anybody particularly surprised that the passports found with the Paris attackers are fakes?'Authorities believe the passports are all fake, and were forged either in Syria or Turkey. Officials with the European Union agency Frontex, which is responsible for border controls, say the number of people trafficking in fake Syrian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}