Bumfuzzled over Syria

Bumfuzzled.  That is the only way to explain my reaction to the progressive intensity surrounding the hawkish rhetoric these days toward the Assad regime.  I pay close attention to the thoughts of my students who have connections to the region.  They are universally opposed to American "intervention."  It doesn't matter that they are Christian Lebanese, Palestinian Muslim, Israeli Jew.  The bishops in Syria see foreign intrusion into internal matters of the Syrian people as ultimately far more destructive than any "good" that might accompany a move that would assuage the conscience of Europe or the United States.  It is a very odd predicament.  The president is oft-quoted as having not made up his mind, even while he moves his chess pieces into position for a strike that will have epic consequences.  Surgical strike?  Is that even a real possibility?

I am under no illusion over its cries of a frame up by Western powers, the Saudis, al-Qaeda.  But the missile attacks, fire-bombings, chemical drops, are designed to intimidate a people already war-weary.  Russia's posturing, aided and abetted by the Russian Orthodox Church (which has shown increasing and disturbing influence over government), is utterly unhelpful.  It sees no alternative but to block measures to gain satisfaction at the Security Council.  Alliances are sometimes stronger than the demands of justice.

And then there is the Catholic just war tradition.  Lester Holt said on air yesterday that the Obama administration (through Secretary Kerry) has laid out a "moral case" for intervention.  Really?  His idea of morality seems very loose.  In fact, as many have rightly pointed out, the moral case for a just war with Syria is hardly in evidence.  My worry is that the Catholic just war tradition has not been sufficiently formed to this point and may not even be applicable in the case of Assad's handiwork.

Many of the same principles that might apply in the American response to the horror of the Syrian attacks on its own people harken back to the days when National Socialists were on the rise in Germany.  Neville Chamberlain came back to Britain's parliament asking that it turn a blind eye to the violations of the Hitler regime. I find many historical parallels.  Secretary Kerry's views are strikingly similar to Churchill and I feel he is altogether alert to this echo in history.

In the end I side with the innocents who will bear the brunt of our decisions.  We sit comfortably while the bombs fall.  But I don't know if more patience is the answer either.  So, bumfuzzled.