Questions you won't get answers to

Here We Go Again - At War in Syria

Terry Newell, founder of Leadership for a Responsible Society, has an excellent summary of questions about the impending Syria strike that have not been answered by the administration. Heck, they haven't even been asked, as far as we can tell.

The first question is to the point:

What justifies intervention in this particular case? The answer would seem obvious, but the United States does not intervene in all nations which commit atrocities against their own people. Why is this case different?

Indeed. The war has already claimed 100,000 lives. Why does the manner of death of the 350 or so killed last week make it imperative for America to go to war?

Suppose Assad's soldiers had just lined up about 350 randomly chosen civilians and rebels and bayoneted them to death. Would Obama be sending in the cruise missiles?

So would someone explain just exactly what makes this fundamentally different? All the administration has said is that the chemical attack "violated international norms." But as Mr. Newell points out, that happens, often with more lethality, all around the world (North Korea anyone?) and we do nothing.

So why Syria, and why now? Well, here is a clue.