The New Home of Terrorism...

...Is the country we have neglected for three years while a massacre unfolded before us on high-definition television: Syria. While the presence of jihadists has nothing to do with American inaction, the circumstance and turmoil caused by our moral abdication of dealing with the situation in Syria has made that country fertile ground for a renewed threat against the West by Islamic fundamentalists.

If this surprises you then clearly you haven't been paying attention. The situation in Syria has been deteriorating for years, and the entire world has cowered in the face of pressure from Russia not to intervene. Instead of working to proactively right a moral injustice, we sat on our hands and now the chaos has consumed the entire country and the Islamist elements of the opposition have gained more power at the expense of the more democratically-inclined rebels. With no stability, no law, and a sense of abandonment brought on by the fact that the outside world has done nothing to stop their plight, it ought not surprise us that Syria is becoming ground-zero for terrorists with Al Qaeda's leader referring to it as a promising staging ground.

As I have said on multiple occasions, the United States and other nations that have the means have a moral obligation to stop atrocities such as this one. It isn't our job to be the world's policeman, it is everyone's job, but not everyone has the means. Those nations that do should feel obliged to use those means to prevent large scale murder.

But perhaps you don't subscribe to that argument. Live and let live, you say, or in this case, live and let die. As this very foreseen story unfolds and Islamic extremists settle into Syria, our national security is threatened. When we do not stand up for human rights we sow dissent and anti-American sentiment not to mention failing to stabilize a lawless environment from which terrorists can safely plot and launch attacks.

This has been obvious for quite some time, and while there was never an easy solution, inaction was always the worst, albeit the easiest course. So we did nothing, and now we wonder if we will be reading about drone strikes against Al Qaeda in Syria in two years. Apparently, this threat of terrorism is so scary that we are now considering talking to the Assad regime. It's hard to imagine how we could have managed this situation more poorly.

While I hope it isn't the case, I fear that our lack of action has only empowered the wrong people in Syria, and made it possible that Syria becomes the new home of terrorism. It is in our national interest to do the right thing, even when it is difficult. That's a lesson we should have learned already, but seeing as how we have not, perhaps the spiraling chaos in Syria will serve as a wake up call.