To skip from local news to international news in one leap -- it looks as though the U.S. is getting ready to bomb Syrian military sites using ship-launched cruise missiles.
This would be to punish the Syrian government for allegedly launching a nerve-gas attack that killed and injured hundreds of civilians during the ongoing civil war there.
I say allegedly because it hasn't been proven so far who initiated the gas attack. The government may have. But also consider that lately the tide of war had been going somewhat against the rebels. The rebels knew that what was seen as a government gas attack would precipitate increased American military involvement on the side of the rebels, which the rebels want. So, as callous as it sounds, the rebels might have released the gas themselves, but blamed it on the government. The rebels might've seen the loss of life as a necessary evil.
Whoever ordered the gas attack, the U.S. must not move in haste, and must, to the best of its ability, learn who released the gas.
American military involvement in the Middle East -- as fascinating as it is to watch American jets screaming overhead and dropping bombs -- and seeing sleek cruise missiles launched from ships -- has had disappointing results. We have helped install new governments and applauded rebels when they kicked out Ghaddafi in Libya -- and we've had high hopes for the "Arab Spring" but the actual new governments in many cases have been no better than the previous regimes. Or, the various branches of Islam and the secular portions of the societies have continued to fight among themselves.
So, as with the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we must guard against the excitement of military action, knowing that our involvement may solve nothing.
Military hardware manufacturers are pleased to see their very expensive weapons (cruise missiles) being used to some effect, because the military will need to order more of them and news reports will describe how accurate and reliable they are.
The U.S. still sees itself as the world's policeman, riding in as the knight in shining armor, holding the moral high ground against immoral governments. Others will say the U.S. is meddling in foreign countries' affairs, only looking at short-term successes, and not really understanding the long-term effects of its involvement.
You will hear some American hawks urging the American military to attack. I say -- watch it. One thing leads to another, and pretty soon we'll have military advisors there helping the rebels, and next, our own regular troops or our troops as part of a U.N. contingent in Syria. Then we're getting into the real "bad stuff" -- American deaths.
Frankly, after Iraq and Afghanistan, I'd rather see the Arabs settle things among themselves.