Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
Ok, so if we don't support our very hypothetical "friends" in Syria, someone somewhere MAY accuse us of abandoning our "friends". If we do choose sides and intervene in Syrai, is there not an equal or greater probability that a whole bunch of people in the region will accuse us of arrogantly forcing our way into a regional conflict that's none of our business in a cynical effort to further our own invariably nefarious objectives? The reality of "perception management" is that somebody will put a negative spin on anything we do, and somebody will believe that spin no matter what we do. If we're damned if we do and damned if we don't why not act according to our own interests and objectives?
Does the above have anything to do with my point? Nope.

Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
Ok, who? Specifically, please...
Do I think there are people in Syria we should support? Yep. Did I come to this conclusion reading open source things available to all over the last several years? Yep. Do I figure this airy request for specificity is being made in good faith? Nope. Do I think it is just being argumentative? Yep. Do I think if God himself could provide a list of people in Syria we should support and the reasons why, notarized by a squad of angels that Dayuhan would still come back with a torrent of 'How do we know?'s followed by a cataract of 'Why should we?'s? Yep. Given this do I have the slightest interest in acceding to the airy request for specificity? Hell no. Am I having a grand old time going on like this? Yep.