My Congresswoman is currently identified in this WaPo chart as being "Undecided" as to whether we should intervene militarily in the Syrian Civil War. I am opposed to any military intervention at this time for a variety of reasons, and I wrote to my Congresswoman. I would urge all others here to write to their Congresspeople as well, and please feel free to use any/all parts of my letter if you would like.
Also if you have any corrections or if I overlooked anything, please let me know in the comments and I can send an amended letter.
(BTW The process was really quick and easy and involved entering info into a form online. It will take you 10 minutes max. Do it now!)
Dear Congresswoman,
I write to express my opposition to US military intervention in the Syrian Civil War at this time and request that you vote no on any authorization to do so. I understand we should support our President, but he has not made the case for committing our troops to war. We cannot put party, or our President, before our country. I know a lot of pressure will be put on you to support this intervention, but I urge you to resist it.
In this case, it is obviously in our national interest to wait and not intervene. First, we do not have conclusive proof that chemical weapons were used. As you know, the Bush Administration manufactured evidence of WMDs in order to engineer the commitment of our country to a decade long war. That was wrong, and therefore the standard of proof for any Administration seeking approval of warmaking activities must be higher.
Second, there is nothing lost by waiting. If there is conclusive proof that chemical weapons were used, then the senior officials in Syria who committed these war crimes should be brought to justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC) as others from the Serbo/Croate/Bosnian conflict were. Yes this takes time, but it is a legitimate manner in which to proceed.
Finally, because the Syrian conflict is a civil war, there is an enormous risk that any military adventure commenced there will go sideways. As you recall, during the runup to the Iraq War, numerous assurances were given by Mssrs. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney and others about the ease of the military operations. These all proved to be false. Now some of the same people are giving similar assurances. They should be rejected.
The last thing we should be doing at this time is starting another military adventure in the Middle East that degrades our treasury and international reputation and potentially kills/maims our troops. I urge you to reject any authorization that commits the United States to intervene militarily in Syria.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
maxschell