Syria: The Tragedy Continues, A Massacre of Children

President Obama, has for the most part continued the foreign policy of his predecessor. It should not be much of a surprise. The United States foreign relations and security apparatus is so large and unwieldy that it is very difficult that it is very diffucult for any President to do more than just modify around the edges.

The President has disappointed liberals by his refusal to get out of Afghanistan quick enough. Others were concerned at his approach to the events in Libya last summer.

Surprisingly there has been very little pressure placed on The President about the position he has taken on the events in Syria. Syria, the northeast neighbor of Israel and neighbor to Iraq, as well as longtime troublemaker in Lebanon has since last years Arab Spring been embroiled in an undeclared Civil War. The United States and most of the other Western Countries have issued hand wringing statments and went to the U N to attempt to have sanctions put in place.

This has been to no avail. Russia has used in veto to stop any efforts of this type. And the killing and atrocities go on. This weekend a grisly event with 109 killed, butchered, throats cut, of those over 40 were small children. One wonders what purpose this serves for the government coalition.

What this illustrates is that in American foreign policy there will always be winners and losers, much of the time the winning and losing will be because of reasons that have little to do with the welfare of the oppressed or injured who seek our help. The United States stayed out of Ireland's squabbles for years to placate the British,stayed out of South Africa and supported apartheid policies, backed dictators from Pinochet, Trujillo and Batista in our own hemisphere and then expressed surprise when the regimes thaf follow did not trust us.

We cannot interfere everywhere, we cannot save everyone. Perhaps we cannot aid the rebels in Syria. We did, however in Libya, some might ask what the difference is. This is where our foreign policy always falls apart. Decisions and entries into conflict are often placed at the feet of human rights violations and abuses but it is rarely if ever the real cause. If it were we would have been in Syria long ago.

I am not saying we should be in Syria. I am saying that we ought to have a discernible pattern in our foreign policy that would make clear what the prerequisites for U S involvement in a civil war are. Perhaps the rebels should put down their guns for awhile and dig for oil. This might make us much more interested in 40 dead children.