Notes on the Conflict in Syria in Light of Current Events

To international readers: This is intended to convey universal principles despite my unavoidably American perspective and heavy references to the political events in the United States.

I don't know who is responsible for the gas attack in Syria, but I am certain that the governmental responses will be the wrong ones no matter what. Governments are just criminal gangs writ large. It is just the Bloods and Crips or the Mafia families on a wider scale, nothing more. Only the religion of The State with its mythology, pageantry, and hymns leads you to believe otherwise. There are no "good guys" in this fight. Russia, the US, Assad's regime, and ISIS are all corrupt criminal organizations bent on domination through theft and murder.

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Missile strikes will only escalate the conflict. We will all be taxed to fund the new round of attacks by governments, and we all bear the risk of retaliatory terror attacks at home, with no benefit whatsoever. Meanwhile, civilians will continue to suffer and die. In the worst case scenario, soldiers from NATO and Russia will be sent to kill one another and destroy each other's homelands to resolve this dispute in which they have no part.

The anti-war left has re-emerged in the US after an 8-year hibernation, but we must take a principled stand based on the rights of individuals in opposition to the State rather than a knee-jerk reaction to Resident Rump. I don't see how a gas attack benefits the Assad regime, but Assad is not worthy of support whether ISIS or his own regime committed the attack. Russia's government is not a force for good, regardless of how well they oppose ISIS.

The blatant evil of ISIS does not excuse the evils of others in response. Trump's bombings are no different from Obama's bombings. Has everyone forgotten the saber rattling that went on for the past 8 years? Hillary Clinton would have been just as bloodthirsty, too. Take your partisan blame game and shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Stop trying to choose the lesser evil, and don't let patriotism, religion, or propaganda fool you into supporting one of these factions. No one in their right mind wants to see ISIS win, but that doesn't mean the false dichotomies we have been presented are worthy of consideration.

Author's note: This is an edited re-post of an article from my Steemit account. I apologize if my Russian tags are in error, since I am relying on Google Chrome to translate the original text in the trending topics list for me.