Syria

[HairOfTheDog]

When you have a nut in power sometimes its better. You know the nut, you understand its thinking and sometimes can figure out which way the nut will spin. If you kill him another nut or an entire can of nuts takes their place. Then you really have a bunch of nuts running around and you don't know which way they will spin.

This is precisely why Gadaffi was rightly not "taken out" for decades, as far as I'm concerned. It was no accident or because he was able to hide well. The alternative was worse and based on some of the declassified DOD docs I've read over the years, few in the global leadership community viewed him as the greater of multiple potential evils. I think if we'd wanted him dead when we struck in 86, he probably would have been dead (with or without Craxi's warning call to Tripoli) and the US could easily have killed more than 60 Libyans. Whether Gadaffi actually saw it the same way or not, he always publicly maintained that Reagan was a foolish mad dog who was out to kill him.

Gadaffi was a player and was also quite predictable. After a US threat or strike, he'd declare a great victory for Libya and then recoil for years. He was nuts from this American's perspective, but he wasn't stupid. He didn't want to die or lose power. He negotiated to pay the US for some of the terrorist acts that he'd supported (and did indeed pay) and the US in turn paid Libya for some global oil operations located in Libya.

A predictable nut (by US definition) who can negotiate, retreat and rule is often best for everyone when the options consist of unknown nuts and known terrorists with no ruling experience and a strong opposition force still in place; I agree.

Syria under Assad is anti-Israel, anti-US, and accused of supporting some terrorist activity; very same situation as Gadaffi's Libya. I do hope this civil war can be ended by Syrians without international intervention and question whether the rebel forces are refusing any attempts at negotiation, in part, because they are gaining Western and neighboring financial and intelligence support (no qualms with the humanitarian aid). Are we encouraging peace or hindering it? IDK. But, it's clear to me that neither side is pure in its agenda, both sides include terrorist influence, and many of those migrating to other countries are not running specifically from Assad's regime, but from civil war.