No "Boots On The Ground" In The New Middle East Wars

I don't know what's wrong with some of our Congressmen, but the effort to become more involved in the Libyan civil war - and perhaps even the Syrian civil war - is misguided at best.

There isn't a problem supporting real democratic resistance movements in other countries, but you better know who you are dealing with. I suspect that the rebels in Libya are just using us because we are letting them do so. As in Egypt, once the dictator is gone, the fundamentalists will usurp the rebel leadership, and a new "baby Iran" will likely be born. (The members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood are finally showing us who they really are, and none of them is a Thomas Jefferson.)

If the United Nations wants to send African or Middle Eastern troops into these countries, so be it. It is, after all, their neighborhood. But American soldiers must never be involved in civil wars or nation building ever again. Not only is another country's civil war none of our business, it is a thankless job anyway, and any success will always be tenuous at best.

There are few reasons to ever have American boots on the ground in the Middle East. One would be the threatened takeover or destruction of the Saudi oil fields. The other would be an all-out war that threatened the survival of Israel.

The decision to involve our nation in the Libyan civil war is one of the worst decisions ever made by a president in American history. There was no clear and present danger to America or our allies. We do not know who the rebels are or what they represent, and there is ample evidence that jihadists from Iraq and Afghanistan are among the fighters.

Tell your Congressional representatives to keep our troops out of these Middle East civil wars.

NO boots on the ground....

Charles M. Grist
www.MyLastWar.com