Dear President Obama,

           "Stay the hell out of Syria."

Dear President Obama,

Please remember where you achieved your success in politics and in policy. You justifiably eviscerated George W. Bush and his cohorts about their ill-fated debacle in Iraq, including hammering your Democratic Party rivals, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. That is why you won the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Bush did exactly what you are considering doing in Syria, although the cases are really not analogous in many ways. 

Here is the bottom line: Syria has done nothing to the U.S. Yes, Pres. Assad did use chemical weapons against his own people, which should lead him to a trial at the Hague. Assad is an evil person, just like Saddam Hussein was. That does not mean that we have to bomb or invade his country. If Saddam had weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons that would have caused the "mushroom cloud" that Condi Rice used to fantasize about, then the U.S. would have been right in leading a world-wide effort to depose him. That was not the case in 2003, and it should give you pause with regard to Syria.

Instead of waiting for the reports on the non-existent WMDs by people like his own advisor, David Kay, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the neo-cons invaded a sovereign nation (yes, Iraq was), and the damage to our young people who were killed or severely injured in Iraq numbers in the tens of thousands. Those military men and women must wonder why they were even fighting in that god-forsaken country. 

Now, we have a trillion dollar in expenses that Bush and his cronies put on a credit card, in addition to the continuing billion dollar a month expenses in the one war that you are now bringing to a close. 

If nothing else, think of your historical legacy: You will be the president who hunted down and killed Osama bin Laden. You will also be credicted with ending two horrible wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why destroy the foreign policy legacy that you have built. (Sure, NSA and drones will drag on that, but that is for another day).

I am currently reading "The Making of the President, 1968" by Theodore White. I suggest that you buy a copy and read the sad saga of Lyndon Baines Johnson, along with some of the dicey foreign policy positions of Richard Milhous Nixon. LBJ meant well, but he did not know how to say "No" to the military leaders who were advising him. He could never come up with a way to "get the hell out." 

You do not want to become another LBJ: start something that will continue to flag the flames in the world, specifically the Middle East. 

We can basically negotiate with nations and people, but we cannot win those battles. The countries of the Middle East cannot handle democracy. In that way, they are definitely "hell-holes." That is sad, but historically, it is true.

You have to tell this to your military advisors who are hell-bent on hitting Syria: "No. Absolutely not."

Case closed.