Dell,
You derailed the topic with GW will be vindicated
Our interests in the ME, including Syria, are primarily defined by oil
The red line was use of chemical weapons
You neocons have accused the pres of not standing firm
When he does, exactly what you say he should do, it is still wrong
That is ideological dishonesty, or personality driven politics taking precedence over issues or principles based policy
I made an aside that the CAFE standards had lessened that dependence on oPEC
You jumped all over the small cars and coffins ideas
Facts are, I agreed that obviously, a fiat loses a war with a semi
That is using the extreme to illustrate the norm-something you do an awful lot of.
That ccan be an useful rhetorical tool, or trick, but it does not constitute a valid argument
Facts are, even with more smaller cars on the road, the fatality rate has gone down, dramatically and almost continously. For a multitude of reasons, driving has gotten safer.
That whole discussion was your deflection from Syria.
No... Nothing will vindicate dumbya's unholy screwup. It was wrong. He was wrong. His puppetmasters were wrong. Even his generals were wrong. Worse, they, and he sspecifically, lied directly to the American people about the supposed reasons for invading Iraq, and nearly as bad as that, he lied about the costs, then borrowed the lives, not to mention the $$ to pay for his little adventure in Ramboism.
If Syria turns into another Iraq, I will be equally critical. Hopefully the intelligence is correct. At least we didn't rush in with guns blazing at the first hint, and took the time to vet the information. Hopefully we don't arm the wrong bad guys, and hopefully, diplomatically, countries like Iran notice that there are red lines that can't be crossed without consequences.
Tho I too would prefer we separate oueselves from OPEC and the ME all together,,and stop trying to police unpoliceable parts of the world