TheOtherView
Opinions from around the country

Other countries than Syria pose greater threat to U.S.

If there was any doubt that North Korea, a country that claims to have nuclear weapons and has publicly threatened the United States, was a more serious threat than Iraq, it was cleared up when American troops marched into Baghdad, facing only pitiful resistance.

And now, with Saddam Hussein’s regime ousted, the United States is turning its attention toward another Middle East country, one that is probably an even weaker threat than Iraq was — Syria.

Even before riotous crowds raiding museums and stealing ancient and priceless artifacts were quelled, U.S. officials turned their rhetoric toward Iraq’s neighbor to the west, saying Syria was harboring Iraqi regime officials and bringing up the country’s connections to terrorist groups.

To be clear, Syria is not a friendly nation — they do, in fact, have connections to terrorist groups that routinely attack Israel. It appears Syria may have a chemical weapons program. But Syria, on the other side of the world, poses little threat to the United States. And, while chemical weapons are nasty, Syria could hardly challenge Israel’s military, which is funded by the United States and possesses nuclear weapons. Most importantly, another war would work to further destabilize the region and put more young American men and women at risk.

By antagonizing Syria as it does, the United States, while trumpeting its “liberation” of the Iraqi people, threatens another people’s basic human necessities: adequate housing, health care, food, clean water and electricity. If the United States is serious about playing the role of liberator, this is not the right message to send to the world’s Arab nations.

North Korea has, among other threats, said it would turn the United States into a “sea of fire.” Unlike Syria — or Iraq for that matter — North Korea might actually have the capability to do so. Kim Jong Il’s paranoid regime says it has nuclear weapons, and the CIA says they have a missile that could deliver such a weapon to the West Coast.

The United States treats these threats by calling for multilateral talks that will probably include offering aid to North Korea’s suffering citizens if the regime ends its nuclear programs.

The others, we bully.

It is much more likely that the United States, embarking on an era marked by a new style of unilateral international aggression, is seeking political and economic control of the Middle East — a region separated from us not only geographically, but also culturally.

This is a staff editorial from the Daily Bruin at the University of California-Los Angeles.
It was distributed by U-Wire.