[MeganC]

Okay, I get it that you two believe that the USA is waging war against Syria for purely altruistic reasons.

Perhaps you two can explain to me what American national interest was being responsibly and admirably pursued by the Obama Administration when this was was started?

Maybe you can also tell me what Syria did to the USA in 2011 that warranted US forces to intervene in that country? What act of war did the Assad regime conduct against the USA?

Or were we just there to promote freedom and liberty and to establish stable democratic republics like we have in Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya?

[Zhang Fei]

“Okay, I get it that you two believe that the USA is waging war against Syria for purely altruistic reasons.”

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Altruism has nothing to do with it. Deterrence, yes. Revenge, yes. Helping our allies, yes. Altruism has a place in foreign policy, but it’s not even the secondary motive at work here. If we were altruistic, then the question would be altruism vis-a-vis which party? If Sunni Arabs, we’d oust Assad. If Kurds, we’d stand up a Kurdish state. If Alawites, we’d crush the Sunni Arab and Kurdish rebels.