In his announcement that he will not run for President, Vice President Joe Biden stated his core beliefs. Among them was an observation about foreign policy: “We’ve learned some very hard lessons from more than a decade of large-scale, open-ended military invasions.… The argument that we just have to do something when bad people do bad things isn’t good enough.”
Biden’s words were directed at the current front runners in both parties. Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio want to send more arms to the “moderate” rebels against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to establish a no-fly zone that would bar the Syrian air force from controlling part of Syrian air space, in order to protect not only civilians but also armed combatants against the Assad regime.
Clinton and Rubio have the righteousness that is legitimized by the manifest brutality of the Assad regime, which has used chemical weapons against its own people. But so did Iraqi President Saddam Hussein; yet regime change unleashed sectarian strife, including ISIS. Rather than strengthening Syrian moderates, U.S. arms would likely wind up falling into the hands of ISIS and al Qaeda. A no-fly zone could involve a clash with Russia, which is supporting Assad. Rubio and Clinton take a tough tone toward Russian President Vladimir Putin as well, without saying how far they would go. And that invites unpredictable escalation.
A diplomatic solution must involve everyone, friend and foe. It will be far from perfect. Everything else would be much worse.
References
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/us/joe-biden-concludes-theres-no-time-for-a-2016-run.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marco-rubio-russia-no-flyzone_5612e38ae4b0368a1a60ad06
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/hillary-clinton-calls-no-fly-zones-syria
https://blog.peaceactionwest.org/2015/10/27/peaceful-alternatives-to-war-pick-up-steam-in-congress/
https://fcnl.org/issues/middle_east/34_organizations_urge_administration_to_tackle_root_causes_of_syria_crisis/
