DON\"T BOMB SYRIA
Do we know that if we intervine we'll be fighting on the side of Al-Qaeda?
The Syrian American Forum (SAF), categorically opposes any military strikes against Syria or any part of the Middle East, however limited they may be.
SAF condemns the use of all weapons, including chemical weapons, by any side; however, and at the same time, we call upon President Obama and Congress to use the Iraq war experience as a lesson of rushing to action based on faulty or unconfirmed evidence. There are already vastly differing versions of the story of the horrific chemical weapons attack that continue to emerge. UN Investigators must also continue their work in order to provide details that may prove very critical. The responsible party must be punished, but not at the cost of more lives lost as an indirect result of our actions, and not before the facts regarding the attacks are known.
Even if definitive evidence unequivocally implicates the Syrian regime, any military strikes will undoubtedly endanger the lives of millions of Syrians, as the response to such strikes may involve the use of more chemical weapons at a substantially larger scale. Furthermore, military strikes will transform the internal war in Syria into a broad regional and possibly global war involving multiple countries that poses huge stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in the region.
Therefore, for the sake of safety of our military service men and women stationed in the Middle East, as well as millions of Syrians and other citizens in the region, we caution President Obama and the Congress that military strikes can and will put these people in harms way. We fully agree with General Martin Dempsey? recent letter to Senator Carl Levin, that we ?must anticipate and be prepared for the unintended consequences of our action?. This view is also shared internationally by our friends and allies. Acting in isolation of the rest of the world will also damage the credibility of the United States as a powerful broker of peaceful settlements around the globe.
Over the last two and an a half years, roughly 100,000 Syrians have been killed in this conflict, equally divided between civilians, regime forces, and opposition forces. The most effective opposition forces fighting in Syria are Al-Qaeda affiliates (Al-Nusra Front), listed by the Sate Department as a terrorist organization, yet the CIA continues to provide training of opposition fighters across the Syrian borders. For 2 and a half years, this policy has not worked. On behalf of the 23 million Syrians who endured a bloody and endless war, SAF urges the Obama administration to put an end to this policy and exercise its legitimate power through diplomacy to force all countries involved in the crisis of Syria to the negotiation table. Otherwise, Syria will further slide into a lawless state, where terrorists will be trained to attack the US and the West.
SAF condemns the use of all weapons, including chemical weapons, by any side; however, and at the same time, we call upon President Obama and Congress to use the Iraq war experience as a lesson of rushing to action based on faulty or unconfirmed evidence. There are already vastly differing versions of the story of the horrific chemical weapons attack that continue to emerge. UN Investigators must also continue their work in order to provide details that may prove very critical. The responsible party must be punished, but not at the cost of more lives lost as an indirect result of our actions, and not before the facts regarding the attacks are known.
Even if definitive evidence unequivocally implicates the Syrian regime, any military strikes will undoubtedly endanger the lives of millions of Syrians, as the response to such strikes may involve the use of more chemical weapons at a substantially larger scale. Furthermore, military strikes will transform the internal war in Syria into a broad regional and possibly global war involving multiple countries that poses huge stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in the region.
Therefore, for the sake of safety of our military service men and women stationed in the Middle East, as well as millions of Syrians and other citizens in the region, we caution President Obama and the Congress that military strikes can and will put these people in harms way. We fully agree with General Martin Dempsey? recent letter to Senator Carl Levin, that we ?must anticipate and be prepared for the unintended consequences of our action?. This view is also shared internationally by our friends and allies. Acting in isolation of the rest of the world will also damage the credibility of the United States as a powerful broker of peaceful settlements around the globe.
Over the last two and an a half years, roughly 100,000 Syrians have been killed in this conflict, equally divided between civilians, regime forces, and opposition forces. The most effective opposition forces fighting in Syria are Al-Qaeda affiliates (Al-Nusra Front), listed by the Sate Department as a terrorist organization, yet the CIA continues to provide training of opposition fighters across the Syrian borders. For 2 and a half years, this policy has not worked. On behalf of the 23 million Syrians who endured a bloody and endless war, SAF urges the Obama administration to put an end to this policy and exercise its legitimate power through diplomacy to force all countries involved in the crisis of Syria to the negotiation table. Otherwise, Syria will further slide into a lawless state, where terrorists will be trained to attack the US and the West.
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