Dan Simpson: Switch sides in Syria

The opposition is now our enemy, whom we no longer should support

February 18, 2014

It’s time for America to change sides in Syria. The Bashar Assad regime remains brutal and unjust, but the Syrian opposition includes among the worst of America’s enemies and isn’t going to win in any case.

I realize that it isn’t like switching from supporting the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Cleveland Browns, but there is an adage from Ralph Waldo Emerson that catches it well, I think.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks, in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”

In the case of U.S. policy toward Syria, it could be put more simply as, “America should learn from experience.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/02/19/Switch-sides-in-Syria/stories/201402180011