For reasons known only to him, Mitt Romney has called for invading Syria. This contradicts his message that he is focused on the economy. An invasion and occupation of Syria will tank the markets, drive up the debt and bring back Democrats to power. The anti-Jihad wing of the Right will permanently split, thus make it impossible for a united Center-Right to ever win an election. The majority of Americans are against intervention. This is not a winning campaign issue.
Victor Davis Hanson clearly realizes that a war in Syria is a waste of time and will make things worse. He warns Romney and the GOP that this is not a winning issue.
But in the case of Syria, the obvious advantages of seeing an end to Assad — offering freedom to the populace, stopping the government killing of its own, ending Syria’s corruption of Lebanon, disrupting the Iran/Hezbollah/Syria nexus — are for now certainly outweighed by a number of factors:
1) We have no reason to believe that minorities will be any better off in the chaos to come.
2) We do not know the composition of the opposition, but can reasonably assume from other recent revolutions that there will be a likelihood of seeing one election one time, in the Gaza model that brings in Islamists.
3) We cannot point to postbellum violence and chaos in Libya as any sort of model.
[….]
Finally, at a time of record budget deficits, 40 months of 8-plus percent unemployment, weak economic growth, defense cuts, and the war in Afghanistan, there is very little, if any, public support for intervening in some manner in Syria. In political terms, there are lots of areas — reset with Russia, distance from Israel, strained relationships with allies, cold/hot/cold attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan — where the Obama administration projects weakness and invites foreign adventurism, but caution in Syria is not an issue that the Romney campaign should use against the president.
Mitt Romney should heed Victor Davis Hanson’s advise. Syria is pissing match between Iran/Assad/Hizb’Allah vs. The Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda. This is a gang street fight and one which we should avoid getting involved. America needs peace and prosperity, not more wars and nation building. The peopel don’t wnat it and we can not afford it.
Tags: Syrian War, Victor Davis Hanson
