“Political power grows from the barrel of a gun.” -Mao Tse-tung
“Ditto.” -Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Laureate
As our nation considers bombing Syria instead of working with the rest of the world to explore negotiated solutions first, it is helpful to listen to the arguments that persuaded England to abandon the idea that unilateral bombing was the only or even best solution. Thanks to Alex Doherty of the New Left Project for the link:
“Military options range from pointless to “extremely dangerous”, and are generally both. A 2012 paper in the Journal of Peace Research found “that military interventions [in civil wars] in favor of the rebel faction … tend to increase government killings of civilians by about 40%”. This supports an “academic consensus” that outside involvement makes civil wars longer, more bloody, and more difficult to resolve peaceably. The “worst results typically involve multiple external actors with conflicting objectives”—as in Syria.” -Tim Holms, New Left Project
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/who_has_the_power_to_make_war_on_syria