(The Tower) Michael J. Totten - The U.S. is getting more involved in the Syrian war. Eventually, one way or another, Assad has to go. Assad, after all, is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The Syrian war triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. And if it weren't for Assad, ISIS wouldn't even exist. The strongest case, though, is on national security grounds. Replacing the Assad regime with just about anything but a radical Islamist terrorist state will make the U.S., Europe, the greater Middle East, and even most of the world safer places than they are now. Destroying ISIS in both Iraq and Syria is our first priority. That's not going to change. The last thing the U.S. should do, though, is partner with the Assad regime that is allied with Iran. Support for ISIS among the general public in the Arab world is in the low single digits. The only reason terrorist armies like ISIS and the Nusra Front are tolerated by civilians right now in Syria is because so many perceive Assad as the greater of evils. Hardly anyone in Syria would even temporarily support ISIS' and the Nusra Front's deranged revolution if there were no one in Damascus to revolt against.
2017-06-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive