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Re "Syria Is Not Iraq," by Bill Keller (column, May 6):
Syria is not Iraq, but we should heed the lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Vietnam. The case for intervention in Syria underestimates the almost certain repercussions.
A United States air campaign to create a no-fly zone in Syria would have to suppress its air defense structure. American pilots would risk death or capture. Damage to Syrian infrastructure and to civilians would make enemies, not friends, of the Syrian people.
There is no support for deployment of American ground forces in Syria. Rightly so, for that effort would escalate into another Iraq. As for proposals to secure chemical warfare stocks, that would require tens of thousands of troops on the ground. Do we really want that?
That said, it may be time for the United States to make the difficult choice of which rebels against President Bashar al-Assad to support with weapons, and take what measures we can to assure that those weapons don't end up in the wrong hands.
We have tried elsewhere in the region to find democratic, Western-oriented forces that can prevail. Success has been elusive. Can we do better in Syria? I doubt it.
HAROLD BROWN
Washington, May 7, 2013
The writer, secretary of defense in the Carter administration, is a counselor and trustee for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
To the Editor:
Bill Keller is surely right that the United States has a genuine national interest in Syria, but we should not put aside the caution that past American interventions in the Middle East have instilled in us.
As we draw lessons from the past, Americans should look not just to Iraq but to the 1982-84 American effort to rebuild the Lebanese state after years of civil war. The effort foundered on the fractured nature of Lebanese society, a society nearly identical to the one in Syria.
I served on the staff of the United States Embassy in Beirut in that period, and along with my colleagues met with all contending factions in a vain attempt to gain agreement for the reconstructed Lebanese Army to assume responsibility for security in areas under control of the factional militias. Syrian factional leaders will be similarly reluctant to trust their safety to a re-established Syrian state, but unless they do so, the process of fragmentation and radicalization will continue. Judging by our Lebanon experience, the hardest task in Syria will be diplomatic, not military.
If after cleareyed consideration Americans decide that our interests require action in Syria, we should proceed, but we should have no illusion about the difficulty and be prepared to see it through to the end. Even if our actions save lives, we can expect no rose petals for our efforts.
STEPHEN ENGELKEN
Bethesda, Md., May 6, 2013
To the Editor:
President Obama fiddles while Syria burns. President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly rejected all attempts at negotiation and has paid no heavy price. The military cadre and aides around the dictator have no intention of cutting a deal. To hand out another fig leaf is just wasting precious time.
Syria is not Iraq; it is Libya. We should create a no-fly zone with NATO allies, drop in undercover military advisers and arm the rebel factions. Mr. Assad and his government will never agree to peace or surrender but will fight on to the bitter end.
Worrying about extremist jihadist fighters within the rebel factions is no longer an option. Not to enter the sectarian civil war when the die is already cast is to abdicate all leverage over the eventual transitional government. Other oppressive states will see us as the paper tiger, withdrawing after our wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
LAURENCE C. DAY
St.
Louis, May 6, 2013
To the Editor:
Much as I respect Bill Keller, I am not convinced that Syria is not Iraq. The neocons could have said, with equal conviction and similar logic, that Iraq was not Vietnam. Certainly the "danger to America's interests and ideals" that Mr. Keller cites was just as clear — and just as fallacious — in the case of Vietnam. President Obama's so-called foot-dragging is the best hope we have of avoiding another mindless, endless military adventure.
FREDERICK VAN VEEN
Kennebunkport, Me., May 6, 2013
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