It’s not that I don’t care about us going into Syria, but come on, is it really a surprise? We knew this was going to happen… The violence there has been going on for years and it’s spreading outward to other nations, affecting the entire world. Brexit was fueled by the refugee crisis. The U.S. election was too. We elected a man into office who said on the campaign trail that one of his military strategies would literally be to, “bomb the shit out of them.”

Do I think that militarism is an evil of society that should be extinguished? Of course I do. But can I understand why people subscribe to that belief, or that it makes them feel safer? Yes, I can. The situation in Syria is out of control and something has to be done, and there’s only so much I as a person can do. There’s only so much footage of children suffering that society can take isn’t there? Why wouldn’t I believe that other people feel the same?

Do I detest Trump and almost everything he stands for? Absolutely. But I don’t hate him for the decision he made in the Syria strike. The reality is, despite all the memes and articles we post, none of us were in that room. None of us know what was said, none of us know what it was like to rescue people from the chemical attack, none of us heard the intel that lead to the launching of those Tomahawk cruise missiles. We can’t judge him for being brash when we really don’t know if he was in this instance.

I’d also like to point out the cruel irony of Russia condemning the strike as an, “act of aggression” when it was in response to innocent civilians dying after a chemical attack, but Russia annexed Crimea and oppresses Ukrainian people, particularly Jews and gays, and has been for decades… So you can have your Perestroika and judge us too? No Putin, I’m not buying it. You all shouldn’t either.

Overall, I can understand both sides of the argument. War is evil, but maybe in some instances it’s a necessary evil. If this leads to WWIII I won’t be shocked, because I knew it would happen in my lifetime. I wish we could all live in peace and harmony but the reality is we don’t, and I’m not sure how to make that happen but I just don’t think a protest is it. So will I protest the action, seeing as how it goes against my beliefs, particularly my catholic faith? No. Maybe I’m a hypocrite but no, I won’t. It doesn’t mean I won’t go to the March for Science or the Immigrant’s March, because those are different things. It doesn’t stop me from standing up for women’s rights or supporting Black Lives Matter, either. Don’t get the issues confused: most of them are not mutually exclusive.

To the liberals who are saying this is Iraq all over again: Did you see the videos? After seeing them, do you WANT to see them again? No? No one does, that’s why the U.S. took the actions it took. Like I said, we weren’t in that room… But the tapes are damning at the least. Also, Pence is NOT Cheney. There’s not a justifiable comparison there, because it’s not likely Pence is going to send troops with insufficient armour somewhere just so Halliburton can make over 30 billion dollars.

To the conservatives who detest protesters, claiming them to be unAmerican or ridiculing them if they happen to have a pussy hat: Do you know the constitution you claim to believe in? The right to protest is a fundamental freedom we have in this country. Yes you have the right to disagree publicly as well, but have you thought about your words before you lampoon people you don’t know? Are they even protesting the same issue you disagree with, or are you lumping in people from the women’s march or those who hate Trump with people who protest war? And if they do protest the war, have you bothered to find out why? Perhaps they lost loved ones in wars and never saw the benefit for anyone, you don’t know.

The reality is we’re all just people, and for the most part we don’t like seeing other people dying unjustifiably. That much we can all agree on – people protest war because they feel like other people die unjustifiably during it. People want us to strike Syria because they feel like it would prevent unjustifiable death such as what we saw in the chemical attacks. We’re all fighting for life of the innocent, we just can’t agree on just how to succeed in that fight. But arguing among ourselves right now is stupid and it’s just what Russia and ISIS and Assad want. What’s done is done. And none of us have it as bad as any of the refugees or anyone in Syria right now, so calm down.

Maybe it was the wrong move, maybe it was the right one. Either way it happened and we’re all in limbo waiting to see what comes next. We should all stop judging so much before we really know the issues. What happens next is something we all will have to face together, like it or not. At least the U.S. isn’t sitting here doing nothing at all.

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt, Looking Forward

 

This was written on April 8, 2017. The images wer taken off of facebook and edited together. Originally they were obviously  made by someone else. None of the credit for the funny goes to me and I don’t claim it!

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