The Shoe's on the Other Foot, or Rather, the Rally Flag is in the Other Hand  

      As I was listening to news reports today it made me start to ponder (yes, I know that can be dangerous).  It was another story about Syria.  The French are urging us, and even goading us a bit to go to action of some kind there.  They have again stated that they have absolute, and undeniable proof that the Syrian government has used weapons of mass destruction - poison gas against its citizens.  The official response from the US is that they need more solid proof.  WOW!  The tables have turned 180 degrees.  
      Just a little over ten years ago the US was the one trying to convince France to join into the fight.  Our people in Washington were telling everyone that they had absolute and undeniable proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  Remember that?  When France wanted more proof, the media went into a huge shaming campaign, and accused the French of being cowards.  Every talk show host had jokes and one-liners for the occasion, and the internet was filled with jokes mocking the French.  
      I think it was Regis, or Letterman, (I can't remember which one), who said "The last time the French wanted proof, it came marching into Paris carrying a German flag."  There was the internet joke that cycled and recycled repeatedly about the French military being crippled due to a fire at the white flag factory.  
      There were people who wouldn't buy or sell French fries, or French toast, and instead they called them "Freedom fries" and "Freedom Toast" instead.  

                                    Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix

      Now it's the French who are all gun ho and leading the charge, while it's the US who are being cautious, and demanding more proof.  I just think that irony is funny.  Are the French people going to refuse to buy or sell American Fries and American cheese now?  Or would they rename these things?  Well, I don't know about the American fries, but I know that with all the varieties of cheese they have there they detest the flavor of American cheese.  They have already renamed it.  They call it "yuck" (or perhaps it is "yuque").  They can't reuse the white flag factory joke either, because our people have been fighting out in that part of the world for well over ten years now. 
      Nevertheless, the French are investigating in Syria, and declare that they have proof that the Syrian government used poison gas against the rebels.  The US is responding that they want more proof.  

The French:  "We have found residue of the gas."  
The US response:  "Maybe it was really something else.  We need more proof."  
The French: "We found poison gas in the tox screen of the victims."  
The US response:  "Maybe they poisoned themselves.  We need MORE proof." 
The French: "We found the government there shipping the poison gas."  
The US response: "there must be a reasonable explanation for that.  We need even more proof."  

      The real point is that for many different reasons Obama and his administration had absolutely no intention whatsoever, under any circumstances whatsoever to get into this conflict in any way whatsoever.  When he stated that the only thing that would make him get into the conflict would be the use of poison gas or other weapons of mass destruction against the rebels, he never thought in a million years that President Bashar Al-Assad would ever really use poison gas against his own people.  Obama thought he was completely safe in making such a statement.  When he declared that as the line to cross, he never thought it would actually happen.  When Bashar Al-Assad actually did use poison gas Obama was backed into a corner that he didn't want to be in.  

       
      Now the only ay he can stay out of the Syrian conflict is to continuously demand more proof, no matter how much proof they have already provided.  He just does not want to get into this one.  He should just say that.  His reasons are numerous.  One, we just don't have enough money to get into any more conflicts.  He's desperately trying to get out of the ones we're in already.  Our soldiers are tired after more than a decade of fighting.  Soldiers deployed and redeployed again and again have lost their marriages over this.  Many have been severely wounded and some have lost their minds.  There isn't much public support for going there for these and other reasons.  Also, they don't want any US weapons to fall into the hands of terrorists.  Finally, no matter how many allies ask, urge, plead and even beg us to go in there, Russia is against it, and there are still enough military people and politicians left over from the Cold War era, who don't want to do anything to make the Russian government mad.  Why was Libya important enough to go in there and help their rebels, but not Syria?  We were in and out of Libya in short order.  The answer:  the Russian government didn't care about Libya, but they don't want us to even think about having any involvement in Syria. 
      France wants to go right in there and help the rebels in their fight for freedom, and stop the slaughter against the civilians.  Our regional ally Turkey is pleading with us to go in there and stop this madness so that Bashar Al-Assad's rockets will stop shelling Turkey's border towns, as he tries to kill any who would escape.  The people of Syria are begging us to help.  An NPR reporter was out there near one of the border towns interviewing refugees after the gas attacks.  The refugees, some sobbing, begged for US intervention and help.  The reporter told them that this just isn't US policy right now.  The refugees then said, "We will never forget this."  That's one potential ally lost forever.  But, as long as Russia doesn't want us to get involved there, that's a price we will have to pay.  

      I am leaving this morning to go camping for a few days.  I will not have a laptop with me, and that wouldn't help anyway.  The place I'm going to doesn't even have decent cell phone service, let alone something like wyfy.  I will be purely vacationing, and enjoying every moment of it (despite the fact that it's supposed to rain - I have a tent stove, and I'm not afraid to use it).  There will be no posts therefore, until I get back on Saturday.  Sorry, there won't be a Science Fridays post this week - maybe I'll post Saturday's as a Science post.  
      This will give some of you, particularly the newer readers a chance to go through the archive and read older posts.  Some of them have long videos attached.  Have a great few days.  I will.