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Praying For Syria

With the news that the USA has launched its first direct military action against Assad, Komal Rasheed has penned her initial thoughts and reaction.

Prayers for the civilians, the innocents in Syria who continue to suffer…from all sides!!
A few thoughts….still coming together.

1.) The US informed Russia before air strikes and Russia no doubt informed Assad.

2.) Assad is a bastard and a component of an ugly multi head monster that is plaguing Syria…if one of the other heads cut him off…it doesn’t kill the monster and make things better…it just grows a different head tied to the same monster. Regardless I can see the appeal when no other solution comes to mind.

3.) Direct military involvement in Syria by a country that continues to not want to talk about Syrian refugees…seems slightly disingenuous or rather really disingenuous.

4.) The timing of our stand against Russia on the Syrian conflict seems to benefit an administration plagued with Russian controversy, related perjury and abysmal Presidential approval ratings. To reference Dug from the movie Up, this is a mighty squirrel much like the Muslim ban (still wrong) that allows the administration to do a bunch of shady shit while the country looks elsewhere and focuses on something else. Ahem and queue …the nuclear option on the SCOTUS nominee, and Nunes.

5.) America has done this same dance before during WWII. A crazy regime was wiping out an entire ethnicity of people for several years while the US was watching from the sidelines….not caring about the human carnage that lay on the other side of the Atlantic because it wasn’t our problem….until of course it personally touched us and our interests. 6 million Jews died across Europe between 1933 and 1945. 400,000 Syrians are already dead, with 2.1 million of them as refugees. WWII was 70 years ago, when the world sacrificed, learned and pledged never again…so here we are..again….teetering in the verge with better weapons that allow us to kill remotely so we are even less sensitive to the loss of human life.

6.) I am not saying something didn’t need to happen…watching those videos break my heart…but I can’t help and think…or try to think of a time when Western military (emphasis on the military) involvement in the Middle East has yielded positive results, abroad or at home for anyone besides the war machine. I haven’t been able to come up with an example yet.

7.) Did you say we need jobs?! are you a veteran who can’t find a job, or an disenfranchised American looking to be gainfully employed?! Have you realized that factory jobs will never return to the US the way they were before? Are you an American who wants to show they care the only way that really counts? Well …WAR, huh, good God, what is it good for?! Absolutely nothing you say…nah…it’s a great way to fulfill a campaign promise, risk the lives of our finest and their families by capitalizing on their love of country, and falsely and temporarily boost the economy…win win win right? (Btw total praise for the men and women who serve our country and do so bravely and genuinely.. hats off).

After all this thinking tonight…what I can praise even if I can’t trust it’s genuineness …is the need to act…I just can’t say the act itself will yield positive results for those suffering in Syria and across the world as refugees. I can assume it will yield positive results for this administration much like a well rehearsed State of the Union speech given not too long ago by our president, that duped people and critics on a man who hadn’t changed his message but just his tone to “sound presidential”.

Duas and love ❤️ to my Syrian brothers and sisters. Remain resolute! #PrayingForSyria

By Komal Rasheed

Komal has dedicated her career to public service. She currently serves as an advisor and director at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) where she leads a team of analysts focused on driving efficiency within the federal government. Under the Obama Administration, Komal was part of a small team of experts responsible for the Top to Bottom reviews of the agency, which saved the taxpayer approximately $31 million annually. She was also a contributor to President Obama’s second term Presidential Management Agenda (PMA) and worked on proposals for a more effective and efficient government. In 2015, Komal was asked to come to the U.S. Department of State for a year to advise on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) strategies and public diplomacy efforts in South and Central Asia. During her time, Komal worked on the State Department’s preparation and positions for United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA); supported Secretary Kerry’s historic trip with all five Central Asian countries; evaluated educational, public diplomacy, CVE, and democracy, human rights and labor programming; and served as the Deputy Director of Community Engagement at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad among other contributions. Follow her @TheKRasheed

Image credit: Christiaan Triebert