This week the British Parliament voted not to stand by the Obama administration in its determination to strike key targets in Syria.    Syrian President Bashir al-Assad has crossed Obama’s “red line” when he allegedly used chemical weapons to kill 1,500 people.  A UN inspection team has just arrived back from Syria.  Their role is to affirm the chemical weapons charge.  It could be weeks before their report is finished.  Obama is now buying time, asking for the approval of Congress.

In my opinion, whether or not Assad used chemical weapons, it is not the business of the United States to get involved in any military activity in Syria.  There are two reasons for this opinion.   First, we don’t have the public funds for such forays.  Second, the philosophical justifications so far presented are seriously flawed.

Fiscally the United States is just a big Greece.  We’re broke and the policies of the Obama administration have sewn the seeds of economic uncertainty, incentivized people not to work, bashed small businesses, bailed out Wall Street firms, and have (using global warming) choked off the real chance for the US to be totally independent of Middle East energy.  Getting into another “conflict” is not fiscally prudent, even under the best of circumstances.

The philosophical stance for military action in Syria is represented by Kerry with the words….

“My friends, it matters here if nothing is done. It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens.”

So presumably the world is “speaking out”.  The key word is “speaking.”  Talk is cheap.  Other than the United States, no other nation actually wants to do anything.  But why should the United States carry the burden alone?

According to Kerry:

“It is also profoundly about who we are. We are the United States of America. We are the country that has tried, not always successfully, but always tried to honor a set of universal values around which we have organized our lives and our aspirations. This crime against conscience, this crime against humanity, this crime against the most fundamental principles of international community, against the norm of the international community, this matters to us, and it matters to who we are. And it matters to leadership and to our credibility in the world.”

In my opinion the United States Government should be concerned about the citizens of the United States, not some “principle of the international community.”  If the “principles of the international community” (whatever these are) are being violated, let the “International Community” respond.

The bottom line is that for 63 years the United States has used its men and treasurer to clean up problems all over the world.  Has this given us any respect among other countries?  Do the Iraqi’s respect us?  Do the Serbians respect us?  Heck, even most countries in Western Europe don’t respect us.  In the Middle East nothing much has changed except that we are hated even more than before.  We, using our resources and military, have enabled other countries for too long.  The ‘international community’ needs to “put up or shut up.”

It is time that the United States gives firm message to the rest of the world.  “Use your own resources to clean up your own problems.”  This is especially true in the Middle East where “regime change” is often like going from the frying pan into the fire.