Obama's Syria War: Why We Can't Trust Him

Let me start by saying that I identify as a liberal. I voted for President Obama in the last two elections and I agree with many of his social and economic policies, such as stricter federal gun control and the Affordable Care Act. I think that we should have our finger on the trigger with Syria, I just don’t know if I want it to be Obama's finger. The fact that Assad used weapons of mass destruction against his own people is a reprehensible crime against humanity, but Obama has made it virtually impossible for me to trust his administration’s decisions, even when I think they might be the right ones.

The use of WMD as commonplace in modern warfare is an awful thought, but why would the government sit on vital intelligence for three days? Members of the Syrian opposition have voiced their displeasure with the U.S. regarding their inaction. An intervention in Syria would not be about moral high ground because if that were the case, the intelligence community could have tipped the Syrian rebels and perhaps prevented this debacle that that resulted in more than 1,000 dead.

There are not only problems with how the administration has handled the situation in itself, but also with the legal tight rope that the administration has been walking in the past several months. We live in a world where the government has literally broken the law thousands of times a year.  Should we decide to strike Syria, we should question the means we would use ourselves to achieve “mission accomplished.”  It's no surprise that the government badly wants Eric Snowden back to throw him in jail for the rest of his life since he’s obviously the only one who broke the law.

Plus, the Obama administration has been plagued with murky legality issues when it comes to drone strikes. The U.S. has killed four Americans since 2009 in drone strikes and specifically targeted Anwar al-Awlaki without due process. The fact that he was born in the U.S. should buy him a trial at the very least

Then, of course, there is Bradley Manning, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking information to Wikileaks. Despite the government’s best efforts, they have not been able to tie Wikileaks to any deaths. On the other hand, there were over 100,000 violent deaths, including 66,000 civilian deaths recorded for Iraq between 2004 and 2009. 

Hypocrisy and vast government overreach have become staples of the Obama administration. Even if we are right to protect the people of Syria from their own government, can I trust my government to handle the conflict appropriately?