LIBYA YES, SYRIA NO

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, Gadhafi’s army lost its chief benefactor. No longer supplied with the latest weapons, today’s Libyan army was weak by modern standards. The Libyan rebels have now captured Tripoli and the Gadhafi regime is history.

When the Libyan revolution started, the U.S. and some of its NATO allies, primarily France and Britain, were quick to intervene on behalf of the rebels, ostensibly to prevent Gadhafi’s forces from slaughtering the civilian population of Benghazi.

The ‘protection’ of Benghazi civilians lasted more than five months. During that time U.S. and NATO airstrikes devastated the Libyan army. U.S warplanes flew more than 1,200 strike sorties, dropping bombs in 262 of them. U.S. Predator drones provided minute by minute intelligence and made 84 precision strikes against Gadhafi’s defenses. NATO warplanes, refueled by the U.S. Air Force, flew 20,000 sorties and made 7,500 strike attacks. The combined U.S. and NATO attacks pounded Gadhafi’s forces into oblivion and enabled the rebels to overthrow his regime.

Without those U.S. and NATO airstrikes, the Libyan rebels would have been toast.

During the more than five months the U.S. and NATO ‘protected’ the civilian population of Benghazi, Bashar al-Assad’s army has been slaughtering thousands of unarmed civilian anti-government protesters in several Syrian cities. Are the Syrian civilians less deserving of U.S. and NATO protection than the civilians of Benghazi? Of course not!

Then why Libya yes and Syria no? The answer is quite simple – the Syrian military is not the weak Libyan army that we have crushed. Syria has been armed to the teeth by Russia. While we could defeat the Syrians, that defeat would come at a heavy cost to us. Their Russian missiles have the capability to shoot down U.S. and NATO warplanes and our Predator drones. And we are scared shitless that if we attacked the Syrians, Iran would enter the fray on the side of Assad.

The American public will not stand for us to become engaged in another deadly military conflict and NATO doesn’t have the stomach for a full-scale war either. That leaves President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, together with their European partners, huffing and puffing at Assad while the Syrian dictator goes merrily on his way as he continues to slaughter his civilian opposition.