Damascus was first mentioned in Gen. 14 when Abraham pursued Arab kings who had captured his nephew Lot and others. Abraham chased them nearly to Damascus to rescue them. After 1000 B.C., King David took Damascus and subdued Syria, driving out the war chief Rezon keeping a large garrison there; however, after King Solomon ascended the throne and defected from God, Rezon harassed Solomon as long as Solomon ruled. Rezon founded the Kingdom of Damascus.

The Apostle Paul was born in Tarsus, Syria and was saved on the road to Damascus, escaped his enemies by being let down from the wall in a basket, and organized the first Christian church in Antioch.

Damascus is home to the Great Mosque, a massive mosque that boasts of possessing the head of John the Baptist, a shrine I have visited. The city has been dubbed the “pearl of the East” but that was not my experience. My major memory of Damascus is masses of people in packed streets, shoulder to shoulder. In my visits to their mosques and shopping areas the people were cordial; however, they did not learn much from the French (who controlled the area for 25 years ending in 1945) because the food and accommodations in the best hotels were atrocious.

Today, Syria is a mangled mess caused by tyrants, thugs, and terrorists and many Americans think the U.S. has a moral obligation to ride in, bugles blowing, and flags waving to clean up the mess providing a democracy (if not a republic) where freedom is the rule. But who put that heavy obligation on us? Is any other nation so obligated? Are we obligated to guarantee freedom everywhere in the world? Did Americans, who pay the bills, have any input into this moral appointment? If not, why not?

Just because President Woodrow Wilson took us into WW I to “make the world safe for democracy” does not obligate this generation to do the same, and may I remind you that we did not make the world safe for democracy. We only slowed tyranny for a while and the flawed and uneven Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 was the cause célèbre for WW II that killed 60 million people! Twenty million more died of war-related disease and famine.

The question must be asked, “Should the U.S. spend its blood and money to do the job–even if it has been determined that we can be successful in doing so?” I am not convinced that we have a moral responsibility to distribute “democracies” around the world nor am I convinced that we can do so, especially in Muslim nations. Not only do I think we should not get involved in every national beerhall brawl, I don’t think we can solve the world’s problems militarily, financially, socially, or religiously. No one made us the world’s savior. We are struggling to save ourselves! That is not isolationism but independence.

Is it not reasonable that the nations in the area have the obligation to clean up the mess? After all, they are all Muslims and have the same heritage. While the surrounding Muslim nations want an end to the Syrian carnage, none are demanding the establishment of a democracy, let alone, a republic. The fact is that both are the antithesis to sharia. We are on a fool’s journey.

It is a major tragedy that about 500,000 people have died in Syria and 11,000,000 have been displaced (including internal displacement) causing major problems for European nations as they have been overrun with refugees. A corollary is the influx of terrorists mixed with innocent refugees that are attacking free people in France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, etc. And yes, in the U.S.

Moreover, the United Nations is supposed to be the peacekeeping entity, not the United States. What has the UN done to ensure peace or at least safety in Syria? I should think UN personnel with character would resign in disgrace and return home on the next plane to their sending nations. They could get a job at customs, the post office, or manning complaint offices and live with dignity–not disappointment and disgrace.

Of course, the UN will not close down voluntarily since the officials have such cushy jobs and are from nations that cannot compare with the “good life” in America. The UN might be more productive if they moved their headquarters to the desert south of Amman or the empty space in the Saudi Arabia desert. Don’t hold your breath.

The 47 Muslim nations of the world could announce to all parties in the Middle East that they have carved out a safe zone in Syria and any incursion by tanks, personnel carriers, or planes will be destroyed. That way Syrians can at least flee to safety in their own nation without risking their lives during a trek to Europe. However, the Muslim leaders don’t have the spine to make the decision. After all, why should they when the U.S. always seems to be eager to ride to the rescue with flags waving and bugles blowing.

Syria is a maniacal, murderous, malodorous mess that should alarm the U.S. but not activate us. It calls for our attention but not our action. Proud, patriotic, even pious people have demanded we jump into that snake pit; however, we must be very wary of sincere patriots who want to kill people only because they feel a perceived or real threat to us or someone else!

Stay out of Syria. Let the Muslims take care of their own problems. After all, they made them.

Boys’ new book Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published recently by Barbwire Books; to get your copy, click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Syria is a maniacal, murderous, malodorous mess that should alarm the U.S. but not activate us. It calls for our attention but not action. Proud, patriotic, even pious people have demanded we jump into that snake pit; however, we must be very wary of dangerous, sincere patriots who want to kill people because they think they are or may be a threat to us or someone else!

Dictator Bashar Assad is a Muslim hypocrite (supported by Shi’ites) and an efficient killer, especially when cornered, but he has governed the nation and provided stability and protection to Christian churches. Moreover, he is supported by Russia (fighter jets) and Iran and the terrorist group, Hezbollah. His opponents are a ragtag collection of Islamic fanatics including the Jabbat al-Nusra terrorists, who will cut the throats of their co-belligerents as soon as the present regime falls or is pushed over. In recent weeks the Syrian “rebels” killed an entire village of Christians (although the photographic evidence has not been shown on U.S. media)! Muslims have acted that way for more than 1400 years!

Just this week, the media reported that the rebels are now controlled by the most extreme Muslim fanatics. Any support of this “opposition” will fund a worse thug than now occupies the catbird seat in Damascus!

The Syrian opposition is a mixture of Sunni fanatics, thieves, criminal opportunists, and a few freedom lovers. Incredibly, the U.S. is supporting them with “humanitarian aid.” We have seen this movie before, but now we are sending fighter jets at Obama’s insistence! They have flown into Syria in the last week. There are 4,500 U.S. troops, plus 300 Marines, on the Syrian border as I write and a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system has been deployed along the Syrian-Jordan border. We would be wise to heed Winston Churchill who said, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” I say, “yes, yes.”

But in spite of all the above, here we go again! John McCain and some GOP (Grand Old Progressives) and most Democrats have been beating the war drums to a deafening pitch. Progressives seem to think America is destined to fight every war in support of the good guys; however, in Syria there are no good guys: it is a monstrous dictator against Muslim fanatics. It is tragic that more than 98,000 lives have been lost but that battle is not our battle. To those who say it is our fight, I ask if we are to get involved in every battle on earth.

The U.S. invaded Iraq because we were convinced that they were involved in the attack on the World Trade Center. A nation must respond when it is attacked. However, Syria has not attacked us and they are not a threat to us. Let the bloody bullies bang their heads together and resolve their own differences. If Israel wants to get involved, that is their business. Let the Middle East nations that are threatened take whatever side they choose. It will not be a principled decision since there is no noble principle involved, only violent religious and political hatred. All factions are thugs, thieves, tyrants, and terrorists.

America has become not only the world’s bank but the world’s policeman that is obligated to clean up the Syrian mess! My opinion: the cost of one American life is too high a price to pay for getting involved and it is not wise for us to pour billions of dollars into that cesspool of a nation while we struggle to pay our national bills. We have seen our young men and women (!) return from Afghanistan missing their limbs and burned beyond recognition. Moms have been killed leaving small children without a mother. (But then, that reflects upon us because any nation that must use women to fight its wars is not worth defending.)

Bush made a super dumb statement when he spoke of taking democracy to nations in the Middle East. They don’t want democracy and even if they did, the burden to take it there is not a U.S. burden. After all, who appointed us the Paladin of Peace? We don’t have the money nor should we sacrifice our youth in a war that cannot be won. Our desire to share the principles of freedom should not entice us into a war that will never be won; however, it is easier to fight for your principles than it is to live according to your principles. Let’s live them and let other people learn them from our example. Furthermore, the winner of the Syrian conflict would not be welcomed at any decent person’s dining table. America should let other nations fight this war then everyone will be losers–except us.

World leaders still haven’t received the message: there is no way to beat Islamists. We can blast a nation into the Stone Age but that won’t win the war. Fact: there will be perpetual conflict as long as there are Koranic Muslims down at the local mosque. We will be at war and living with terror to the end of time! The next war could very well bury Western Civilization forever as well as the barbarians on the Arabian Desert.

Furthermore, there is the issue of national sovereignty. Who gave America (or Russia, China, Israel, etc.) the authority to interfere and invade another nation? Do we believe in national sovereignty or not? Do we believe in sovereignty for us but not for “them”? No one has even tried to justify this.
Of course, another war might take America’s attention off the “scandal of the day,” giving Obama some breathing room. Only a fool will say that we have any chance of establishing even a semblance of freedom in Syria. Freedom doesn’t work in Islamic nations since freedom is the antithesis to sharia and jihad.

Non-thinkers, bubbling over with naiveté, praised the uprisings in Libya, Egypt, etc., and now they realize that we got much more than we wanted. Radical Muslims have been enabled and are now in control with sharia and jihad as the norm. Moreover, our incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan are two more abject failures of a stupid, senseless, strident, and suicidal foreign policy.

Let our politicians use their bloody pulpits and the media to promote freedom everywhere but keep our money, missiles, munitions, and men at home.

Oh, also keep our maidens and moms at home.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.

Every time Cato the Elder (born 234 B.C.) spoke to the Roman Senate, whatever the subject, he ended each speech with, “And Carthage [on the coast of North Africa] must be defeated.” After many years, it was.

Likewise, Damascus, Syria is the oldest inhabited city in the world and will be destroyed as was predicted in Isaiah 17:1, “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.” Is that prophesy about to take place before our eyes on television news?

Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, reveals that Damascus was founded by Uz, the son of Aram. He reports that Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his History, says, “Abraham reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans: but, after a long time, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of Judea.” That means Damascus was a thriving city by about 2000 B.C. since that was the approximate date of Abraham’s birth.

The almost dry Barada River (Cold River) runs through Damascus and is the same as the Abana River mentioned in relation to Captain Naaman as recorded in II Kings 5:12. In the 1980’s I did a driving tour from Jerusalem to Amman (Jordan) to Damascus to Beirut, Lebanon. I visited Damascus and spent time at the Abana River as well as the street called “Straight” mentioned in relation to the Apostle Paul. The street is two miles long and is now in a very poor area whereas in Paul’s day it was a magnificent thoroughfare lined with columns.

About 85% of Damascus’ citizens (about 2 million) are Sunni Muslims, and there are about 2,000 mosques in the city. The Grand Mosque of Damascus is one of the largest, oldest, and considered one of the holiest sites for Muslims. The site originally had been the Christian Cathedral of St. John and inside the mosque is the shrine of John the Baptist where tradition holds that the head of John is buried although other churches claim a head of the famous prophet and baptizer of Christ! One head was promoted as the head of John as a boy!

Some branches of “Christianity” place an emphasis upon relics that often slides into silliness. In 1881, The New York Times claimed that the monks of two rival French monasteries used to exhibit, in one, the skull of John the Baptist “when he was a boy,” the other his cranium “after he had become a man.” I have seen one of John’s skulls in a mosque in Damascus.

Will we see Damascus totally destroyed? What a tragedy to see this historical and biblical city in total ruins! Will the UN get involved and escalate the disturbance into a catastrophic event? We will soon know the answers.

As ruthless a dictator as his father was, President Bashar al-Assad should be called Bashar the Butcher. While all people of good will want to see him assume room temperature, it is not wise for us to take sides. Those rebels in Syria without a doubt are Muslim extremists. Let them fight their own battles. The choice between the two sides is not a choice between good and evil but between evil and much evil.

The U.S. does not have a horse in this race, but we do abhor the killing of innocent people. While Assad is a vicious dictator, he has permitted Christians to practice their faith and has kept relative peace. If he is deposed, Muslim fanatics will fill his chair. Most reasonable people prefer a sensitive, peaceful conservative but in the real world that is not going to happen. Assad is not a good guy but he is preferable to the alternative. He is a known entity and Syria has not been shelling Jews on the Golan Heights. A new Syrian strongman might break the treaty and the shelling could become a daily event as in the past.

The Syrian opposition is a mixture of fanatics, freedom lovers, and criminal opportunists. Incredibly, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for supporting them with “humanitarian aid.” We have seen this movie before. Non-thinkers praised the uprisings in Libya, Egypt, etc., and now we realize that we got much more than we wanted. Radical Muslims have been enabled and are now in control. Sharia law will be forced on the people in all Muslim-dominated nations.

Russia, China, and Iran are backing Syria’s dictator while Saudi Arabia is opposed to him and supports a new government in Syria, hoping that it will not be as friendly to Iran.

When former Saudi King Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud was on his deathbed, he warned his sons to “keep your eye on Syria” since anything good for Syria is considered bad for Saudi. While both Syria and Saudi Arabia are Muslim, the Saudis are of the fanatical Wahhabi sect plus it is the location of Mecca and Medina and the birthplace of Mohammed. There are no churches of any kind in Saudi Arabia and even other Muslim sects such as the Shiites are without mosques in most major areas! Syria is more secular than Saudi Arabia but Sunni Muslims are the majority religious group in both countries.

Fanatical, committed Muslims are dangerous, devious, and deceitful people and we are fools to waltz into the crossfire. The free world should permit these countries to work out their own differences, remove their own totalitarian leaders, and worship however they choose. The U.S. can cheer the good guys (better guys) but we don’t have the money, personnel, or authority to get involved.

Damascus will be destroyed and while that will be a major disaster, it is more preferable than Dallas. And don’t be deceived, if those on the streets of Damascus have their way, it will be Dallas.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.