Rep. Adam Smith expresses skepticism about Syrian war

Kudos to Rep. Adam Smith (WA – 9th CD) for expressing serious doubts about the wisdom of war in Syria in this NPR interview.

Everybody blames us for everything over there. And I think we need to take a step back and say look, we don’t have the support of the Arab League on this. We don’t have the support of the U.N. We don’t have the support of NATO. I think this is an international responsibility, not necessarily just a U.S. responsibility. …

I think part of it is accepting the fact that what we can do might not be enough, that there is no immediate solution to it. There’s all kinds of countries throughout the world that are suffering internal strife. These are all awful things, all things that we wish hadn’t happened. But can we create a situation where the U.S. is, as the cliche goes, the global policeman that’s going to somehow going to step in there and fix all of these problems? I’m quite certain that the answer to that is no, we can’t; we have to be selective about what problems we can fix. The question is: Is this one where this particular action is worth it?

Smith is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. In the past his Congressional district served military bases, and he sponsored NDAA. In recent years, he has tacked to the left, as his district has become more liberal due to redistricting.

I wrote on his facebook page, as a comment on a link to his NPR interview: “We are sick of war. Recent wars have been unjustified, corrupt, and/or mismanaged. Trillions of dollars and untold lives have been wasted.”