The Case Against Intervening in Syria: Nick Gillespie on C-SPAN

Nick Gillespie | 9.2.2013 10:25 AM

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

NEXT: Report: DEA Has Been Secretly Snooping on More Americans' Phone Calls Than Even the NSA

Hide Comments (90)

Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.

Fist of Etiquette 12 years ago

Nick Gillespie on the Libertarian Agenda

I knew it! Why not just interview the Koch brothers, CSPAN?
The Late P Brooks 12 years ago

Picking on a cripple, eh?

And then you went and badmouthed Krauthammer.
Lady Bertrum 12 years ago

When the Weekly Standard eventually folds, Nick, you need to hire Andrew Ferguson.
1. Lady Bertrum 12 years ago
  
  I'm convinced he's either a closet libertarian or convertible.
MP 12 years ago

It seemed to me like most of the callers on the Democrat phone line had an argument that was essentially "I support the President because he's smart and he's a good man and I like him."

THE MESSIAH
1. Suthenboy 12 years ago
  
  I will point out again that they want to wage war on Assad for the mere act of gassing his own people. Not long ago they were chastising GWB for lying about Saddam possessing WMDs, ignoring the fact that Saddam also gassed his own people.
  1. MP 12 years ago
    
    But they don't want to wage war. They just want to give him a time out.
    1. Res ipsa loquitur 12 years ago
      
      Drones and Cruise Missles don't really count as war because no one ever dies from them.
      1. Killazontherun 12 years ago
        
        Like a schoolmarm's ruler applied to a nation's knuckles to let them know how naughty they are.
      2. setTHEline 12 years ago
        
        Naw, people may die. But not Americans, just other civilians who probably had it coming for wanting to live in Syria in the first place.
      3. OneOut 12 years ago
        
        Well, no one on our side at least.
  2. Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago
    
    And no one would have cared if Bush had taken Saddam out with a helicopter and a Seal Team - on the cheap and effectively (Obama style).
    1. Suthenboy 12 years ago
      
      It was not possible. It is very unlikely that it will occur in this case either.
      1. Hyperion 12 years ago
        
        All things are possible, in ButtHeads mind, for super Obama.
        
        ButtHead is all for going around the world and changing regimes to setup a another US puppet, as long as his supreme master is doing it.
    2. DJF 12 years ago
      
      I did not support the Iraq war but there is a difference between taking out a guy with his own army and taking out a guy with only a couple of servants.
      1. Res ipsa loquitur 12 years ago
        
        Not for Obama, reality does not limit his achievements. He is a gifted military genius, leading American Forces to victory after victory, never but tasting the sorrow and pain of defeat....except for that little thing in Afghanistan where 70% of all US Casualties occurred under illustrious stewardship.
        
        Why didn't he send a seal team and helicopter to win there?
        
        wwhorton 12 years ago
        
        I've taken a page out of Obama's book. Yesterday I stopped at a red light. I considered it a moment of laser-like focus, leadership, and solomonic wisdom. My friends refer to me as a masterful driver with an unparalleled ability to anticipate the unexpected and make sound decisions under pressure.
        
        C. Anacreon 12 years ago
        
        I am stealing this, nice work!
        
        Hyperion 12 years ago
        
        But, Afghanistan is soooo last decade.
        
        Geat Messiah Obama cannot be bothered with unfashionable old wars, he needs to lead the new and exciting ones.
        
        I think he should get him a proper uniform, like a South American dictator would wear.
        
        Go get em El Presidente War Boner Grande! Every time one of your glorious drones kill some 3rd world sub human brownies, Shreek has another orgasm.
        
        Cdr Lytton 12 years ago
        
        I think he should get him a proper uniform, like a South American dictator would wear.
        
        Like the one John Gill introduced to the Ekotians?
    3. MP 12 years ago
      
      The WMD justification for Iraq mandated a controlling force, as the point was to secure the WMDs. The fact that they were non-existent is irrelevant, because the planning was based on their presumed existence.
    4. Francisco d Anconia 12 years ago
      
      And no one would have cared...
      
      Certainly, no one here cares about your opinion on anything. LEAVE.
    5. wwhorton 12 years ago
      
      So, to be clear, bin Laden was the bedraggled, semi-crippled leader of a terrorist organization living incognito in a country with whom we have any number of agreements vis a vis counterterror operations, and Saddam Hussein was the head of a sovereign state and nominal commander-in-chief of one of the larger military forces in the Middle East. A minor distinction, I know, but probably just a little bit significant.
      
      And, so far, cheap might describe his style, but certainly not inexpensive, and definitely not effective. Unless your goal is to ride a wave of white guilt and Progressive utopianism to a job for which he is remarkably unqualified, in which case he is clearly a master.
    6. Anonymous Coward 12 years ago
      
      Add on to that the 1,500 American soldiers that have died since Emperor Barry rose to his throne along with hundreds of civilians killed by drone.
    7. R C Dean 12 years ago
      
      And no one would have cared if Bush had taken Saddam out with a helicopter and a Seal Team
      
      Well, except for the bit about assassinating a head of state being a violation of US and international law.
      1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
        
        Saddam used to wear a uniform all the time. Seems like a legitimate target to me.
        
        Mongo 12 years ago
        
        I dug him shooting off the rifle in the air while sporting a pork pie hat.
        
        JoshSN 12 years ago
        
        And you seem like someone completely ignorant of the relevant U.S. and international law.
        
        And I'm sure it's not just me.
        
        Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
        
        You look like you're new around here. You're not making a good impression.
  3. Killazontherun 12 years ago
    
    What if chemicals are used to expedite a war to an end? That is always the excuse given by neocons to justify bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oh, right, America is exceptional. Truman was a wise leader of a democratic nation while Huissain and Assad are tyrants. Sometimes I forget.
    1. JoshSN 12 years ago
      
      Nice one! Yours?
      
      I haven't heard anyone bring up the expedited ending before.
Almanian! 12 years ago

Clearly Nick just doesn't like Kristol and Krauthammer cause...JOOOZ.
1. MP 12 years ago
  
  You'd think being the youngest member of the Bushy Eyebrow League would make him more sympathetic.
2. Killazontherun 12 years ago
  
  It's always 1939 somewhere in the universe.
3. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
  
  No, we hate Kristol because JOOZ and we hate Krauthammer because he's a cripple. Try to keep up.
  1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
    
    Speaking of JOOZ check out the caller at ~27:00.
4. Snark Plissken (erstwhile PS) 12 years ago
  
  John mansplained to me a long time ago that using the term neocon, especially calling Krauthammer a neocon is idiocy of the highest order.
5. Kurbster 12 years ago
  
  keep on thinking that the 'conspiracy theories' of jews in a position of political influence is false.
  
  Bill Kristol is a jew
  Charles Krauthammer is a jew
  both have a neocon interest in propping up Israel at the expense of the US
  
  the sooner you realize the jewish lobby isn't for America's interests, is when this country can finally begin healing
  1. Contrarian P 12 years ago
    
    So because you've found two jews who are really bad pundits that equates to a conspiracy? Give it a rest, man.
Palin's Buttplug 12 years ago

Gillespie on Bush: "amateur hour" and "disastrous".

BOOOSH! NO FAIR!
1. Ted S. 12 years ago
  
  Gillespie isn't using "BOOOOOOOSH!!!111!!!" to defend Obama.
  1. Hyperion 12 years ago
    
    I wonder if Shreeky will worship Hillary like he does Obama?
    1. Tejicano 12 years ago
      
      I wonder if she will grow a phallus for her worshipers to gag on just so she can fill in the emperor's shoes in the exact same way as the current leader. I mean she resembles a hyena is just about every other way so this kinds makes sense.
  2. JoshSN 12 years ago
    
    I guess he brought it up in a completely context-free way.
    
    Ted S. really has the brains on, today!
Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago

Wow, Gillespie must be really influential, guess who's supporting him?

"Violence never brings peace: war brings war, violence leads to more violence,"

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.....sco-27503/
1. Hyperion 12 years ago
  
  Since the Pope is Gods personal spokesperson, it's quite evident that GOD agrees with libertarians.
  
  So, next time a 'liberal' asks, what would Jesus do, we already know.
2. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
  
  I'm sure the Carthaginians would have something to say about that.
  1. Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago
    
    "ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant," lol
    
    yumdessertdrool.com
    1. Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
      
      Nevertheless, the matter was permanently settled. And peace depends on what the other guy wants, too.
      1. JoshSN 12 years ago
        
        I wonder how many unique, and useful, genes have been wiped out because so many fucking idiots think exterminating Native American tribes, or whoever, is desirable because the solution is permanent.
        
        You are smart. You can probably just figure it out.
        
        The shortest human gene is 76 base pairs, and that means only about 4 to the 76th, or, 5.7e45 combinations to try to find a good one.
        
        Or, fuckheads like you could stop exterminating people.
        
        Cascadian Ephor Xenocles 12 years ago
        
        Fuck you. I never said anything about it being desirable.
        
        The Immaculate Trouser 12 years ago
        
        I wonder how many unique, and useful, genes have been wiped out because so many fucking idiots think exterminating Native American tribes, or whoever, is desirable because the solution is permanent.
        
        Uh, did you rip this from bizarrereasonstobeapacifist.com?
        
        General Butt Naked 12 years ago
        
        That's not a real website.
        
        hth
        
        JWatts 12 years ago
        
        Dud. He obviously mistyped. It should have been bizarrereasonstobeapacifist.org.
Hyperion 12 years ago

What's the likelihood of the GOP in the house voting yes on this?

I worry, since so many of them are war mongers.
1. Hyperion 12 years ago
  
  I mean because it's very clear that the only reason that Obama is going to congress, is that when this becomes a total disaster, which it will, then he can point and say 'but the Rethuglicans wanted this! It's their fault!, I was just respecting the will of Congress!
  
  And the stupid party will lose more seats in 2014.
  
  Goddamn every motherfucker who votes for this shit, they should be dragged through the streets and then rot in hell.
  1. Anonymous Coward 12 years ago
    
    Leave it to the Stupid Party to never miss an opportunity to do something stupid.
  2. Tejicano 12 years ago
    
    Naw, they should be sent in as the first wave to hold the beachhead until we get our troops geared up to go. Arm them and support them as well as we can but send them first.
    
    They want a war? Let them have the first slice.
Longtorso, Johnny 12 years ago

The image John Kerry WON'T want you to see: U.S. Secretary of State pictured dining with Assad and his wife at Damascus restaurant before war broke out in Syria
This astonishing photograph shows U.S Secretary of State John Kerry having a cosy and intimate dinner with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Kerry - who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday - is pictured around a small table with his wife and the Assads in 2009.

Assad and Kerry - who was then a senator for Massachusetts - lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their wives look on. ...
1. Hyperion 12 years ago
  
  I'm sure that pic will be all over CNN and MSNBC, any minute now. Those guys are always right on top of making sure the American public gets the whole picture, not just what the current administration wants us to see, right?
  1. JoshSN 12 years ago
    
    Just like they spent so long concentrating on Bush-Saudi ties after 9/11? Or went in depth into Reagan-era relations with Saddam?
    1. OneOut 12 years ago
      
      It's Bush's fault for the children !
    2. JWatts 12 years ago
      
      Just like they spent so long concentrating on Bush-Saudi ties after 9/11?
      
      There were all kinds of stories about the Bush family ties with the Saudi royal family after 9/11. Hell, there was even a New York Times bestseller written about it in 2004, entitled "House of Bush, House of Saud".
2. Redmanfms 12 years ago
  
  He was before the Assad regime before he was against it.
Francisco d Anconia 12 years ago

Well done Nick.
Anonymous Coward 12 years ago

I enjoy how the "compassionate" and "empathetic" Progressives claim that Obama is "setting a trap" for the Republicans in that if they don't give him what he wants, he'll call them weak on defense and if they do, and Syria goes down the crapper (which it will), he'll just blame them.

It's okay to cynically play with the lives of Syrians and American troops so long as TEAM Blue comes out ahead.
1. OneOut 12 years ago
  
  Racist.
Bill Dalasio 12 years ago

Honestly, I don't understand why the Republicans don't scream from the rooftops "We'll be providing air support to Al Qaeda!" I think that ought to be first and foremost in any discussion of the issue.
1. Francisco d Anconia 12 years ago
  
  Because, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and the rest of the Hitler youth that have taken over the party.
  1. Bill Dalasio 12 years ago
    
    Sigh.
    
    I don't think "taken over the party" is the right turn of phrase. They've owned the party for a while now. The takeover is something in process. And it's the voices of reason who are trying to do the taking over.
    1. Francisco d Anconia 12 years ago
      
      It has been a while. But warmongering like this wouldn't have flown in the 80s. Reagan may have been pro defense, but he was sane enough not to use it.
      1. Bill Dalasio 12 years ago
        
        That's what I don't get about this. I can't think of a Republican foreign policy big who would back this. Reagan would have been appalled. Nixon would have been horrified. Hell, even Teddy Roosevelt would have asked "What the f**king f**k are you doing?!" And that's on the interventionist side! We've replaced geopolitical analysis with juvenile exercises in penis slapping.
      2. Bill Dalasio 12 years ago
        
        That's what I don't get about this. I can't think of a Republican foreign policy big who would back this. Reagan would have been appalled. Nixon would have been horrified. Hell, even Teddy Roosevelt would have asked "What the f**king f**k are you doing?!" And that's on the interventionist side! We've replaced geopolitical analysis with juvenile exercises in penis slapping.
      3. JoshSN 12 years ago
        
        Reagan didn't illegally arms, in order to get in bed with drug dealers, in order to fund rebels that U.S. law specifically told him he could not fund?
        
        Reagan was the most horrific of U.S. Presidents on foreign policy. For the record, I recently posted on my blog that I thought only G.H.W. Bush was the best foreign policy President in the last 50 years.
        
        Reagan armed both sides of the Iran-Iraq war. There is no more despicable, craven or cowardly act.
        
        VG Zaytsev 12 years ago
        
        Murder droning weddings is way worse.
        
        OneOut 12 years ago
        
        You have a blog ?
        
        Who knew ?
  2. Bill Dalasio 12 years ago
    
    You'll have to forgive me, though. I was watching Paul's performance on Meet the Depressed from yesterday and I was thinking "Damn, that sounds like a real president." The optimism may have gotten the better of me.
  3. PapayaSF 12 years ago
    
    I'm not so sure. The Tea Party folks are now a big block of voters, and I doubt if most of them want to bomb Syria. John McCain and Lindsey Graham aren't the core of GOP.
Bill Dalasio 12 years ago

Let me take my analysis a step further. Assad isn't a nice man. He's a godawful prick. But, he's a godawful prick whose interests, on the main, don't necessarily dramatically conflict with our own. He's ultimately interested (assuming rationality) in some degree of stability in the region. Yes, he'll do whatever he can to "zing" Israel. But, pushing that too hard would be a strategic error on his part. And if he doesn't realize that, I can't imagine his generals don't. The rebels, on the other hand, don't have any particular interest in stability. Their goal is transformational. His is a client state of Iran. And, for all their efforts at nuclear weapons, it isn't all that clear to me that the mullahs see that as anything other than a guarantee against external threats. The bottom line is they're increasingly boxed in. The best strategy to deal with that is how do we make them less paranoid given that reality.
Mongo 12 years ago

400 quatloos on the newcombers.
Pat1JBock 12 years ago

Bentley. I can see what your saying... Eric`s rep0rt is amazing, on saturday I bought a top of the range GMC after making $4947 thiss month and-a little over, ten-k last-month. this is definitely the most comfortable work I've ever had. I started this 4 months ago and pretty much immediately made myself minimum $79.. p/h.
this article w?ww.w??rk25.???m
Emmerson Biggins 12 years ago

Great job Nick. Don't back down one iota on this. You are 100% in the right, and it needed sayin.
Eduard van Haalen 12 years ago

Hit 'em again, Nick!

By the way, why don't you have your customary attire? Did you take your shirt and jacket off?

Get it? Huh-huh huh, huh-huh.
1. Anonymous Coward 12 years ago
  
  The Jacket must occasionally return to its home dimension to replenish its supply of Unobtainium. That element, combined with the life force of its host, Nick Gillespie, give the Jacket unimaginable power in our dimension.
VicRattlehead 12 years ago

So why are we all focused on violent options for Syria, if we are convinced spending millions of tax dollars that would be used for good in America are best spent in Syria why do we not help fund refugee camps so those that wish to flee have a safe means of doing so, assist the surrounding nations in securing their boarders and protect the civilians, that way we have not engaged in war on either side but have established a means in which the people can save themselves from the violence, they need medics and food not violence and bombs.
GaryWGoldman 12 years ago

my classmate's step-sister makes $81/h hourly on the internet. She has been out of a job for 6 months but last month her pay was $20391 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this site...

http://www.Rush60.com
GaryWGoldman 12 years ago

my classmate's step-sister makes $81/h hourly on the internet. She has been out of a job for 6 months but last month her pay was $20391 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this site...

http://www.Rush60.com
GaryWGoldman 12 years ago

my classmate's step-sister makes $81/h hourly on the internet. She has been out of a job for 6 months but last month her pay was $20391 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this site...

http://www.Rush60.com
Jake345 12 years ago

the stupid black clothes high school affectation look from Nick again...

Please log in to post comments

The Case Against Intervening in Syria: Nick Gillespie on C-SPAN

Latest

The 'Big Beautiful Bill' Will Add $2.4 Trillion to the Deficit

Anti-Israel Violence Does Not Justify Censorship of Pro-Palestinian Speech

Belated Republican Objections to the One Big Beautiful Bill Glide Over Its Blatant Fiscal Irresponsibility

A Car Hit and Killed Their 7-Year-Old Son. Now They're Being Charged for Letting Him Walk to the Store.

Everything Got Worse During COVID

Recommended

Login Form