Syria

The United States might blow things up and kill people from a distance in Syria because Assad bin Assad, a cruel wretched son of a cruel wretch, added sarin to the misery of Syrian's civil war.  The only correct thing to do, is indict Assad for war crimes and haul him off to The Hague for trial.  Removing him, though, gives too much advantage to the Islamic fundamentalist component of the rebellion.  What we want, is a true, democratic revolt that will overthrow the current regime and install a non-sectarian representative government with participation by all ethnicities and sects, and includes equal rights for women.  Zero chance for that.  Americans think they are looking through a window, but are really squinting at a mirror.  We think that rebellion against a dictator means replacing cruelty with fairness.  In Syria, as anyone who knows the area would have predicted, the battle segments to Shia, Sunni, Alawite, plus a few other groups.  Nothing Assad could do -- either good or bad -- is sufficient incentive for people to change allegiance.  We did not learn from Iraq where expected anti-Saddam fervor became Shia vs Sunni vs Kurds because it always was.