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[Duuvian]

Now would be the time to set in motion a meeting between Obama and Putin where the East meets the West and decides how far should we let these things continue when we have the power to stop it? Mayhaps a permanent non-aggression pact between the Russian Federation and the United States of America so we are free to be able to stop someone else's fighting when there is a need?

[Another]

Do you mean "we, humans" or that both US and Russia will be able to stop someone else's fighting when there is a need?

[PTTG??]

We already can't fight. Nukes, remember. Instead we get things where the US backs Israel, Japan, and the late Iraq, and Russia backs Pakistan, China, and Iran, and then our friends fight and we tell them not to and here's some guns.

[RedKing]

Proxy wars are the new old hipster thing. Major power wars are so 19th-century. Instead the real action is with these little obscure countries that you've probably never heard of but which have some great ethnic/sectarian divisions. So the big backers can get behind them but the wars can still have that authentic "Third World shitfest" feel, with kids running around with AK-47s and people lopping arms off with machetes and shit. None of that commercial "shock and awe" mechanized mass warfare bullshit, this is hardcore personalized warfare.

(....I think I may have become a tad bit too cynical.)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I don't think you're going to see much cooperation between the US and Russia. They're just about to sign a bill prohibiting the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans, in fact.

[PTTG??]

Putin is a celebrity. As such he does unimportant things with the air of importance. Nobody cares about Putin's little hissy fit besides Russian orphans.

In more serious news, apparently Syria's using chemical weapons right now, and nobody cares.

[Nadaka]

Putin is a celebrity. As such he does unimportant things with the air of importance. Nobody cares about Putin's little hissy fit besides Russian orphans.

In more serious news, apparently Syria's using chemical weapons right now, and nobody cares.

I have not heard anything about it.

[Owlbread]

Putin is a celebrity. As such he does unimportant things with the air of importance. Nobody cares about Putin's little hissy fit besides Russian orphans.

In more serious news, apparently Syria's using chemical weapons right now, and nobody cares.

I have not heard anything about it.

I don't think they're using chemical weapons yet. If they were, the United States would be intervening right now militarily, as they have threatened. Israel is also discussing an armed intervention.

[RedKing]

However, the Israelis may not wait for them to be used. They're less concerned about Syria gassing Syrians, and more worried that as the regime disintegrates, those chemical weapon stockpiles could find their way to Hezbollah or al-Qaeda. Which is also a major concern of the US, for obvious reasons.

[misko27]

No, they haven't intervened. At most they've used cluster and regular SCUD missles. There isn't much else they can do, but they haven't crossed the event horizon.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Something will be done if it looks like the sarin is going to come out. We could very well send boatloads of Marines into Syria for a direct intervention if it looks like the sarin is going to come out. And we have very, very large boats.

[WealthyRadish]

Seems pretty funny that the United States intervened with Libya the moment their oil exports Italy to looked uncertain, but have yet to do anything in Syria during a much more dire civil war. It certainly puts all those stupid speeches about the Libyan people's struggle in perspective.

[PTTG??]

I used to think that, but frankly if we were just in it for the oil, we'd have supported the old regime.

Anyway, I'm tired of being pushed both ways. Should the US intervene in foreign civil wars or not? It's a yes or no question.

[RedKing]

Anyway, I'm tired of being pushed both ways. Should the US intervene in foreign civil wars or not? It's a yes or no question.

No it's not, anymore than "Should thieves be punished severely?"
Not all thefts are equal, not all foreign civil wars are equal. Beyond that, even in the abstract it's not cut-and-dried.
 
On the one hand, humanitarian reasons to intervene.
On other, state sovereignty is the foundation of the Westphalian system.

On the one hand, rebel movements have to earn their own freedom and sometimes intervention just serves to discredit them.
On the other, America owes its own existence in part to French intervention at a crucial moment.

Sometimes the status quo is terrible.
Sometimes what follows is worse.

[ChairmanPoo]

Not all thefts are equal, not all foreign civil wars are equal.

And not all interventions are equal (not refuting what you said, just saying that it's an extra parameter)