Set aside partisanship

Decisions about Syria are very difficult, but Phil Phillips doesn’t make it easier with half-truths and partisan sniping.

Phillips says that we threw Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak under the bus. Exactly how does he think the U.S. should have interfered in Egypt’s political situation?

John Kerry’s 1971 testimony before a Senate panel was not “critical of American troops in Vietnam,” but of the war itself and the moral injury to soldiers (like himself). You can read the official text online.

Also see the Winter Soldier documentary film, which shows the 1971 testimony of 30 young Vietnam veterans in a war-crime hearing. It is available on DVD or free online. Very moving—everyone should watch it. There is also a follow-up documentary, This Is Where We Take Our Stand, with veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Phillips says damage to the Assad government will benefit the Syrian rebels who are allied with al-Qaida. It will also benefit the Syrian rebels who are not allied with al-Qaida, some of them brutal criminals in their own right. Brutality breeds brutality and vengefulness.

President Barack Obama seems to want a limited, symbolic action as a warning to Assad against using prohibited weapons. But so far I’ve seen no clear-cut evidence that the Syrian government is the perpetrator. However, the world can’t just ignore a chemical massacre.

What to do? We could wait for the United Nations to conclude its investigation.

And could we, for once, leave aside the constant partisanship and the attitude that Obama is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t? CORALIE KOONCE

Fayetteville