Syria: Tired yet?

I suspect you are already tired of hearing about Syria.

The future path is blurry – even to our president.  Assad will still be in power. 
How many has he killed without chemical weapons? Who is using the chemical weapons? It sounds to me like the real problem is whoever is issuing the orders in Syria.

Americans are now on the verge of committing billions of dollars we do not have to impact an area of the world that already hates us. Here at home we have millions who cannot find a job. We have millions more who cannot feed their families with the paychecks they bring home. All the while our roads and bridges need desperate repair. We need new school buildings for our children. We have made our military do more with less but we continue to ask them to do more. We continue to put our aging seniors at risk as we make it harder for us to pay social security and cover our huge medical tab.  Needless to say the tax debt for our children and grandchildren grows all the more. Syria means additional taxes, not less.

Many of us can still remember how tired we were of Vietnam. My brother served a year in Vietnam and it was a long year for our family. Fortunately, he came home. An older friend who lived just up the road named Junior was killed in Vietnam. I will never forget his funeral. The expression on his father’s face said it all when a finely dressed soldier handed him the folded American flag and expressed his appreciation on behalf of America for Junior’s service.

Vietnam went on for twelve long years. It was a senseless waste of at least 58,000 American lives and for so long it seemed it would never end. We endured Iraq for eight years and lost almost 4,500 more soldiers, and yet today the country is in constant chaos. Today we have allowed Afghanistan to surpass Vietnam as our longest war. With all the noise about Syria do not forget we are still in Afghanistan. We will spend $100 billion in Afghanistan this year and risk the lives of more American men and women.

The story we are hearing about Syria keeps changing. We have been hearing about Syria for at least two years. Now we are hearing all the promises made by our president, secretary of state and others pertaining to our involvement. Over the months the promises will change, as there will be new developments, revelations and new commitments of weapons, food, soldiers and your money.

Brace yourself because history is about to repeat itself, and we are already tired.

Glenn Mollette is an American Columnist and speaker. He can be contacted at gmollette@aol.com.