As I write this, the Obama administration is threatening missiles strikes on Assad’s Syria to show him and his allies that if he does not surrender his stock of chemical weapons, the US will not stand by and let him gas his own people. Secretary of State John Kerry, echoing the president, has been unrelenting in trying to make a moral case that we cannot sit by and let this happen.
As a Jewish pacifist, I am mindful of the horror of so many people killed by chemical weapons but also of the one hundred thousand people already killed by conventional weaponry, not to mention those maimed and homeless because of the civil war. Still, I believe that launching missiles would be a serious blunder and that many more will die if we send in missiles.
As always, I have come up with questions to better understand the problem and, with hope, find a solution that fits this situation. Here are some of those questions:
Is it morally, not to mention politically and militarily, correct for the US to become involved in yet another country’s internal conflict? My response is No. There are wars and civil wars around the world and more ahead, and we as a nation cannot and should not be the moral judge and jury that once again asks our young men and women soldiers to shoulder the burden of war and sacrifice.
But can we turn our backs on those who have been gassed by one party or another and do nothing? No. Dropping missiles on parts of Syria is not the solution. It will not automatically lead to peace, and it will only create more deaths, especially in a region historically divided between religions, sects, and unforgiving extremists of all stripes.
Missiles will neither solve nor remedy the complex problems of the Middle East, as other nations have learned. Will the action our president proposes change the situation? No. In such a potentially explosive region, there is a serious risk of retaliation and counter-retaliation, and of other nations, including the US military, being drawn into a wider conflict.
But is any war justifiable for pacifists? No! Never. Certainly not anymore, given that extraordinarily destructive weapons are more easily available than ever. We are hopeful that the UN and its major nations will find a peaceable solution and help effect a cease-fire while banning arms shipments to all sides, help the many distressed and frantic Syrian refugees, and encourage all nations, including Syria, Iran and Israel, to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention and Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a great toll on our military and their families. Today, we are gratified that the American people overwhelmingly oppose getting into another Middle East war. To try to sell so misleading an idea, which is overwhelmingly rejected by a majority of the American public, can never bring peace at home or abroad. Last year we quit Iraq. Next year we should leave Afghanistan, another lost cause, and this is not the time to become mired in yet another bloody clash.