A reminder: there is no future in politics and government cannot be trusted to be effective in regards to anything.
Neither of these facts should, however, be reasons to not have a morally correct opinion on an issue or a current event. Specifically, there are right ways and wrong ways to intervene in a country whose dictatorship is causing death and suffering that defies international law. There is also something to be said about the world we live in where the United Nations are incompatible with dictatorships.
To the question on whether or not we should intervene in Syria, as it has been the case in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, the answer is a resounding yes. The opposite answer is always an explicit preference to a nation under the control of dictators as opposed to the control of the people. The future of these nations is under the responsibility of the nations of free people to ensure that it is in the hands of the oppressed. What happens after that is the responsibility of the formerly oppressed.
There is ample evidence that has been spoon-fed to us all that this is the case, and that it is the moral choice, especially on the subject of Iraq. This specifically has been done brilliantly by Christopher Hitchens, whose points have yet to be challenged on any level of effectiveness. Yet we still find ourselves in a world where the majority still believes the false facts of a broken media. The same is true in the case of Syria.
We should be a little more allergic to broken-record consensus-speak and blind partisanship. Freedom is for export, the opportunity of democracy is worth any price and finally, a post-dictatorship era for a nation is far superior than its predecessor state.
Those who disagree and have not lived under dictatorships themselves have no right to speak of moral superiority when they speak against attempts to intervene in the actions of tyrants in power. You do not need to be political to be a moral universalist.
In fact, the less politically-minded you are, the more likely you’ll be to have the right idea of what the right thing to do should be.
Much love,
Zen Politics
“About Syria” – Published September 15, 2013
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