Sarah Palin calls for restraint in Syria

While it seems as if members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are aggressively calling for action to be taken against the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons on its own citizens, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seems to be taking a position more in line with the founding fathers by calling for restraint.

In a Facebook page Palin said regarding the country’s internal civil war that President Barack Obama should “let Allah sort it out.”

“Our Nobel Peace Prize winning President needs to seek Congressional approval before taking us to war. It’s nonsense to argue that, ‘Well, Bush did it.’ Bull,” Palin said in a Facebook post Friday night. “President Bush received support from both Congress and a coalition of our allies for ‘his wars,’ ironically the same wars Obama says he vehemently opposed because of lack of proof of America’s vital interests being at stake.”

“As I said before, if we are dangerously uncertain of the outcome and are led into war by a Commander-in-chief who can’t recognize that this conflict is pitting Islamic extremists against an authoritarian regime with both sides shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ at each other, then let Allah sort it out,” Palin continued.

Many of the founding fathers including George Washington warned against America becoming involved in foreign entanglements such as what is happening in Syria. While no one would dispute what is happening is horrific, the question is, does the situation pose an immediate and direct threat to America?

Palin went on to note the criticism leveled against Obama by others over how he appears more concerned about the death of 1,500 due to chemical weapons while turning a blind eye to the 100,000 who have been killed using conventional weapons.

“We didn’t intervene when over 100,000 Syrians were tragically slaughtered by various means, but we’ll now intervene to avenge the tragic deaths of over 1,000 Syrians killed by chemical weapons, though according to the White House we’re not actually planning to take out the chemical weapons because doing so would require ‘too much of a commitment.’”

The Obama administration is attempting to justify the double standard by saying the use of chemical weapons violates international conventions and therefore justifies intervention whereas conventional weaponry does not rise to the same standard.

Following the president’s announcement that he would ask Congress for a resolution of force against Syria, some have said it may not be as much of a slamdunk as he might think. Sen. Patrick Leahy has already said the Senate will be modifying the president’s proposal because it is too open ended. The president has also sent mixed signals as to how important he considers the resolution by suggesting that he has the authority to launch an attacking without the approval of Congress.

Most everyone agrees that chemical weapons were indeed used in a suburb of Damascus, however there is dispute as to who actually deployed weapons. The Syrian government has claimed the weapons were used by rebel forces in an attempt to draw America and the world into the Syrian civil war in order to help them overcome his series of defeats. However, others have pointed out the Syrian government is known to have stockpiles of chemical weapons whereas the question regarding possession of these weapons by rebel forces is not as clear.