Our president, although a smooth talker, is sometimes an undisciplined one with rash pronouncements like “Assad must go” and foolish talk of “red lines.” Statements that no experienced leader would make. Now, President Obama wants to launch a war against Syria. Make no mistake, it would be an attack on a sovereign nation.

Have Obama and his advisers considered possible consequences? What consequences? Iran and Hezbollah have suggested they might attack Israel. Empty threats? Possibly. Maybe not. Our military and their families have suffered enough. And for what? We charge into one country after another whose culture and tradition we know little about. The result? Where is the democracy and freedom our leaders are always talking about?

Obama is full of moral outrage. But here’s something interesting. After Obama was elected president in 2008, Israel launched operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip. For a month, the defenseless people were bombed and rocketed. The result, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli organization, was 1,385 dead, including 762 noncombatants. Israeli casualties? Nine dead – four by friendly fire. Could it be called a massacre? And not a peep out of President-Elect Obama. Where was his moral outrage then?

Let’s hope the American people, through Congress, will tell the president to stop playing Russian roulette in the Middle East.

Neal Newby

Mancos