The specter of U.S. military action against Syria and further intervention in the Muslim world is generating troubled and conflicting emotions throughout America.
People cite misgivings about their country's role as "world policeman." They express moral outrage at atrocities in a faraway nation, tempered by dismay about trying to decide who's good and who's bad in a sectarian slaughter. There's a deep ambivalence about how to use American military power for good without committing the United States to another intractable war.
Those sentiments are reflected in a series of interviews conducted Friday by The Associated Press across the country and borne out in recent polling.
In town after town, Americans weary of war after a dozen years of it are expressing unease, concern, fear and often resignation. Keep reading
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A US military attack on Syria, no matter how limited, runs a high risk of being perceived on the street in the Muslim world as an attack on the House of Islam. It also runs a similar risk of helping Islamist extremists to seize power in Syria and to establish an Islamist regime in that country, as well as providing grist for the Islamist propaganda mill, which can be exploited to generate support for Islamist extremism. It certainly will not protect the United States from Islamist terrorism. Rather it will increase the likelihood of chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamist terrorists. Whether it will serve as a deterrent against the future use of chemical weapons is open to debate.
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