Sending Arms to Syria a Bad Idea

Fighting has spread to Damascus. My Syrian friends are all on Facebook today and report bombs exploding and shots fired throughout the city. A Sunni believes that the Free Syrian Army is made up of “men from Turkey, Afghanistan, and Qatar” while an Alawite counters that she’s been stopped at a Free Syrian Army checkpoint and all speak fluent Damascene Arabic but carry American weapons. My ex, a well-traveled Christian polyglot from Homs (the epicenter of regime violence), is convinced that the Free Syrian Army is a joint Al Qaeda/CIA/Mossad operation and my Kurdish former sidekick seems to have all but disappeared. While none of these reports are totally trustworthy, the perceptions themselves are undeniable: the only consensus in Syria today is the total lack of uniformity. Russia’s recent decision to send three naval ships to Tartus, a port in Northeastern Syria, further complicates the question of US involvement in Syria’s festering pseudo-civil war but ultimately, US interests are best served from the sidelines of this conflict. While admittedly we do have a dog in this fight, it is in both our immediate and long-term best interest to remain spectators.