Intervention

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the problem with military intervention. The USA has many examples of "humanitarian" intervention in just the last half-century, from Kosovo to Somalia on the lower end of scale to Iraq and Vietnam on the upper end. We're also blamed for the crises that we didn't prevent, like the Rwandan genocide and the various conflicts in Sudan. Invading a foreign nation in the name of keeping the peace rarely goes well for those involved, so why do we keep alternating between "stay out of it" and "we should have done something"?

In Syria, few advocated for US military intervention in the years leading up to the retaking of Aleppo, but now that there is a humanitarian crisis, everyone is up-in-arms that we sat back and did nothing. You can't have your isolationist cake and eat it too. This isn't particular to a political party. Both sides play this game, with the opposite party's president getting blamed for whichever action they took. The fact that Republicans presidents usually default to "invade" does help a bit with their party unity. Democratic presidents usually take flak for either path they take.

Let's take a look at the last few of these in recent memory:

• Rwandan Genocide, 1994: Clinton took no action
• War in Kosovo, 1998: Clinton ordered air strikes
• Afghanistan, 2001: Bush ordered full invasion
• Iraq, 2003: Bush ordered full invasion
• Tunisia, 2010: Obama took no action
• Egypt, 2011: Obama took no action
• Libya, 2011: Obama ordered air strikes
• Yemen, 2011: Obama took no action
• Syria, 2011: Obama ordered covert support of certain rebel factions

Almost every single decision above has been heavily criticized, with no respect to a consistently favored policy. Republicans, who usually favor intervention, loudly criticized Obama's involvement in Libya and Syria, and yet also found the time to blame him for the outcome in Egypt as well.

Please decide what you actually think about military intervention, and keep a consistent point of view. As a product of the Bush years, I favor staying out of civil wars and other foreign conflicts, and I am always skeptical about intervention, but I'm not going to wring my hands afterward and say that "we should have done something."