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The relatively muted response among committed anti-interventionists to actually existing U.S. intervention in Syria—over 4,600 airstrikes and counting—is striking, having something to do, perhaps, with the antiwar let have already declared victory years ago. In 2013, the left credited itself with staving off airstrikes against the government of Bashar al-Assad after his forces used chemical weapons, a stated “red line” for U.S. President Barack Obama. A popular talking point then as now was that any undermining of the Syrian regime would only aid amorphously defined extremists; if we’re going to bomb anyone, it should be them.
A year later the U.S. did just that, launching airstrikes against anti-regime extremists but not those loyal to the Assad dictatorship. And when the U.S. bombs finally began falling, the silence was deafening: groups that had ramped up efforts to keep U.S. hands off Syria remained comfortably demobilized, while Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard became a liberal star and regular feature on the campaign trail with Senator Bernie Sanders based precisely on her opposition to regime change in Syria, explicitly coupled with a call for the U.S. and Russia to bomb the country some more.
full: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/20/the-anti-imperialism-of-fools.html
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