A Beard Divided and oh yeah ... Syria

As my Beard and I were out running today our thoughts drifted to many things : what kind of headboard to make Ericka, Wylie taking my Maglite to school today as his 'favorite toy', and oh yeah Syria.   After loosely following the news on the conflict in Syria, watching the President's speeches, listening to the Dan Carlin podcast, and discussing the issue with the wise Kent 'the ninja shaman' Voss we are mixed in our emotions about what the country should do.  We thought we would use the blog to work through some of the conflicts in our head.

1. The Assad regime used chemical weapons to kill civilians in their own country.  A lot of them were children.  Q. Did the Assad regime really do it or did the rebels do it in an attempt to draw us in to the conflict?  Were the rebels thinking that the means would justify the end?  The U.S. helping to end the war sooner means that they would save more lives overall?  A. We have to believe that most of what we are hearing is true and that Assad was responsible.

2.  The President wants to act militarily.  A large number of the people in the country do not.  Q. Is it the responsibility of our country to get involved when atrocities like this take place?  Should we act without full congressional approval, popular approval, and without full consent from the U.N.?  A. We tend to lean towards yes but with hesitation.  The world looks to us and we think that is a heavy burden.  It is a heavy burden but one that we are proud of and one that we deservedly carry.  Better that the U.N. is on the same page but we need to be willing to stand for what is right. 

3.  The country has a large number of things that we need to spend money on at home.  Education for one.   Last year several states cut their education budget by 20-25%.  How can we continue to be a world power if we are allowing the foundations of our country to fall to the wayside?   A cruise missile costs around $1 million dollars.  Can we afford to get involved over there when that money could be feeding, educating, and caring for U.S. citizens that need it?   Then again last year the top 1% of the country saw its income go up 20% while the other 99% of the country only saw its income go up 1%.  There might be some other financial issues that we could focus on to help education.

We think that the overlying conclusion for us is that the country needs to make these decisions with compassion being the leading motivation.  Compassion by America towards those that are suffering is what empowers us to help people all over the world and at home.  Hopefully some of the 'leading the world through example' rubs off and others are inspired to be equally compassionate and helpful.  Can we really argue that we should not get involved because we are still have active conflicts in other places when we have the means to do so?  Can I really argue that I would rather see Wylie's school district receive more funding when there are kids his age getting gassed to death by their own country?  

There was a poll that said that 70% of the country thought that the Assad govt would use chemical weapons again if they were not stopped.  The same poll said that 80% of the country thought that we should not choose sides in the conflict.   What??  How can we think he will gas people again and not choose a side?

Then again...I may just be dehydrated from my run and rambling on about a subject I don't know much about.  Just tried to find a picture from Syria to include.  I chose the one above because it was the least disturbing.  If you are in the mood to see true pictures from Syria I encourage you to google them.  Pretty depressing.  

http://dancarlin.com/  - This guy does two podcasts that I have been listening to pretty regularly.  Great stuff.