Dear Commons Community,

As the saber-rattling over Syria’s use of chemical weapon on civilians escalates in Washington, D.C., Denis Hamill’ s piece in the New York Daily News begs the question:  Are we insane about engaging in another war in the Middle East?  Hamill starts by citing the grim statistics from the eleven years of the Iraq War – 4,500 U.S. troops killed; 32,000 U.S. troops wounded; 120,000 Iraqis killed; and a debt of more than $1 trillion that has hobbled our government and economy.   He then asks:

“How can we claim the moral high ground after years of torture and waterboarding in Iraq and Afghanistan? After dumping over 20 million gallons of Agent Orange, or dioxin, one of the most lethal chemical compounds known to humankind, on Vietnam — much of it poisoning our own troops?

How did we as a nation suddenly draw this chemical red line in the sand after recently published CIA documents prove that President Ronald Reagan knew that our then-ally Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons in the Iraq-Iran war in the early 1980s? As we backed Iraq, and did nothing?”

His conclusion is we would be “insane” to become involved in a war in Syria!

Tony