It warms the heart to see examples of international cooperation toward a common good, so i was especially pleased over the recent news that Russia has joined the United States by launching air strikes in Syria.
Can anyone look at Syria and not understand that the situation there is a cancer that we should labor together to cauterize before it spreads farther?
Hopefully, the news that Russia has joined the US in working toward a final solution to the Syria problem will encourage other powers to join us. Certainly Saudi Arabia could shift a few planes from Yemen to help, Iran could escalate its help from merely supplying materiel and a few fighters, France could divert some planes from its efforts in Northern Africa, Turkey could put the Kurdish problem on hold for a bit while it mops up Syria, Israel could stop piddling around over Gaza, Jordan could throw in a couple of planes, the Brits could field a long range bomber or two, and the Germans, who’ve been sitting on their butts for decades, could pitch in and pull their weight. In the best case scenario, China would join the coalition.
Just think of what we’ll accomplish by working together! In a week or two we’ll put an end to a horrible civil war that’s been going on for years, we’ll frustrate ISIS by destroying all the idolatrous archaeological sites before they can get to them, we’ll relieve the refugee problem facing Western Europe by eliminating the would-be refugees before they leave Syria, and most importantly, by reducing the entirety of Syria to an empty rubble pile, we’ll “encourager les autres” and get other small countries to behave themselves, lest they get The Treatment.
Talk about a win-win-win-win-win. But in my traditional policy of fairness, here’s an alternative view brought to my attention by CKM, from a source i usually discredit but who sometimes comes up with something eminently reasonable.
Meanwhile, i went digging back a couple of months into my photo files without finding a pic sufficiently horrible, so here’s a water lily at Saratoga Springs.
