Meanwhile, Back In The Middle East...

And what comes with the end of Assad's regime? Well, look at Iraq and Libya. Not exactly a cakewalk for democracy, stability, women's rights, are they?

This goes to show that we have every reason to be as wary of leaving foreign policy in the hands of anonymous newspaper editorial-writers as in the hands of their "expert" friends high up in Washington.

There's too much at stake for the rest of us to just ignore.

Item: Suicide bombers on the same side as the United States  in the Syrian conflict. And the rebels threatening to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon if they don't stop supporting their longtime ally, the Syrian regime. Imagine Hezbollah as a victim in all this -- that's how crazy this can get.

In fact, here's Assad himself, in a program airing November 9, speaking on the prospects and consequences of an outright foreign invasion, a la Libya. It's notable that Assad's comments were not sought by US media, but by Russia's English-language equivalent of CNN, RT:

"The price of this invasion if it happened is going to be more than the whole world can afford. Because if you have a problem in Syria -- and we are the last stronghold of secularism and stability in the region and coexistence, let's say -- it will have a domino effect that will affect the world from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And you know the implication on the rest of the world. I do not think the West is going in that direction, but if they do so, nobody can tell what is next."