From: Timothy Gatto

Aw Snap! I knew it! It was the rebels in Syria that used Sarin Gas, according to the UN. Now what will Lindsay Graham and John McCain say? I mean how stupid does that make them look?

Of course they will say we can't believe the United Nations reports. We should trust them. I recently talked to some South Carolinians at my local gun dealer and the people down there were laughing out loud. Can you imagine that? They were telling this New York Liberal that Lindsay and John were crazy to want to arm the rebels!

That is the word on the street. This is coming from the reddest area of the country. Most people down here think the rebels are all affiliated with Al Qaida. Somehow, the message that the right is trying to put out, that we should get involved in Syria is just not getting out down here. Most people that I talk to believe that the United States should just stay out of this terrible mess.

We could provide assistance to the refugees that are suffering in this crisis, the way that the Syrians provided aid to the Iraqis who fled to Syria when the U.S. invaded Iraq. This is the least that America could do. Syria opened its arms to the suffering people of Iraq, regardless of their sects; Sunni Shiites and Kurds were welcomed with opened arms. We should aid the Syrian people now.

Providing arms to the rebels will only prolong this war. The only aim our government has is to bring down the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad because he allies himself with Iran. This is the crux of the problem if you want to call a spade a spade. The government of Syria is not the problem. The Gulf Cooperation Council and Turkey, France and Israel are the problems. This is a proxy war between them, and on the other side is Russia, Syria and Iran.

This war is spilling over into Lebanon and could and probably is, involving Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel is coming into the fray. If the right is allowed to get its way, the United States will blunder in with all its military might and get its face bloodied in a never-ending conflict that could last forever. I'm sure that McCain and Graham would be happy. It would make their military industrial handlers richer than ever.

All of this is a joke. Everyone knows it. The sad part of this joke is that people are dying. These sociopaths in power don't care about those in Syria dying over their diabolical plans. We all know how this will end. More people will die. Eventually we will use military force. Once that happens, it will become a quagmire. This could become Obama's legacy. It could become World War III.

We can stop this. We can demand that our nation stays out of the fray. We can write to our elected officials. We can demonstrate. We can resist. We can revolt. We have the right to control our government. If we don't want to become involved in a foreign war that doesn't interfere in our national interests then we have the right to stop that involvement.

It's time to get off of our asses and get out into the streets. While we do that by physically marching or sending letters or by phoning the White House it doesn't matter. We all need to make our voices heard. The time to do it is now.

We can't wait until we have twenty thousand troops in Syria taking casualties while we spend billions every day to maintain their presence. This is how it starts. We need to understand how and when to resort with military force. This is not the time.

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Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" available from Oliver Arts and Open Press.

By Timothy V. Gatto, a retired Army Sergeant and former Chairman of The Liberal Party of America. He can be reached at: timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.