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But that's just the problem and we've been to this rodeo before. I completely understand the concerns of those who don't want to arm bad actors who hate us. On the other hand the article in the Denver Post today is heart breaking. There were interviews of Denver area Syrians, desperate for intervention and all of whom had lost family members, one man all three of his brothers.
Mahmoud Kassir, owner of the wonderful Littleton restaurant Damascus Grill where we've dined or ordered take out regularly for years, grew up in the suburb that was hit with sarin. It happened two miles from where his cousin lived but his 45 year old cousin was awakened around 3AM by a call over the mosque speakers urging anyone with a car to go to the rescue. He did and died. A thirteen year old female cousin had already been killed by snipers. All together 12 family members have now been killed. !2. And there will probably be more.
Story after heartbreaking story tells of our Syrian neighbors' family members dying back in their homeland, mainly shot by snipers while just venturing out to do the things people need to do to survive, not as fighters. Most, of course, killed by conventional, not chemical weapons. They feel abandoned and that the US has done nothing because Syria has no oil .
My heart goes out to them, especially to Littleton's own Kassir family, wonderful people, but it's very hard to see what kind of military intervention would do much good or anything but add another element to the civil wars, as it did in Iraq where our intervention led to well over 100,000 deaths by the most conservative estimates, most believe the number to be much, much higher, and where terrorism continues to today.
There truly seem to be no good options here.Yet what do we say to desperate, grieving Syrian-Americans, such good, hard working people who have come here to live the American dream? We're always treated like the most welcome friends at Damascus Grill. I don't know what to say to them.
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