It’s been ineffective because you’re obviously not the only one who believes in the “moderate rebel” unicorn ... LOL. I mean, you’re in good company there with John McCain (now I feel like throwing up .... ).

That’s my point - democracy took root in those countries organically, through their own experiences and history.

You’re really trying to make it look like you get all this, don’t you?

Yes, and South Korea and Japan both had to be reduced to ashes to get started on their “history of democracy.” We’ve been around for more than 200 years as a democracy, and we’re still struggling as a nation in getting it right.

How exactly are they going to “pay for it?”

You’re always thinking on such superficial levels.

At some point, you’re going to have to muster up the courage to stop splashing water in the cognitive kiddie pool, and start venturing out into deeper mental waters where you find your feet can no longer feel the relative safety of that rocky sea floor littered with your preconceived notions and biases.

That’s how you say “Shit just got real .... “ in Chinese.

If the country isn’t pacified before Assad steps down, there’s no nation-building that’s going to happen. Power hates a vacuum, remember? Look at Afghanistan and Iraq. We had armor and troops on the ground!

Isn’t that exactly what even the most “moderate” of “moderate rebels” is?

Dude, stop being THAT guy. You’re making stuff up and it’s making you look stupid.

Quit pulling stuff out of your ass. What’s your basis for saying Syrians “don’t want to be liberated?”

I actually went through the Carter Center for Peace reports and analyses on Syria a year ago. They pretty much say the same thing, with even far more excruciating detail than that Wikipedia entry - any moderate rebel groups in Syria have been subsumed under either or both the ISIS banner, or some Al-Qaeda in Syria…

Yep. Well late last year Russia tried to broach such an approach. But the first condition was people needed to put down their arms first, so that everyone could start rebuilding and working towards a reconciliation process.

It’s THEIR city, their country.

http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-ne…

I think one of the worst things we’ve done in modern war is develop weapon systems designed to be “precise” and “reduce collateral damage.” I think this was a reaction to the televised war in Vietnam, wherein such media did a lot to undermine public support for the war.

I don’t get this insistent on “city blocks” thing. OIF wasn’t fought in barren desert like ODS in Kuwait. We fought the Iraqis in villages and cities. We dropped cluster bombs on their cities. We killed nearly 300,000 Iraqi civilians.

We didn’t lose the war in Iraq. We lost the peace.

How do you NOT use a broad brush to define terrorists? It’s not like they wear uniforms or have specific gang hand signs, or have a certain style of haircut per group. Here in America, if you take up arms against the government, you’re going to called a terrorist and get the Patriot Act rammed up your ass sideways.