Heard the phrase “Iraq Syndrome” yet? It’s supposed to describe a mental disturbance in which people irrationally refuse to endorse an act of war against Syria because they see too many parallels with the Iraq disaster. Daniel Larison’s response to this Orwellian slur ought to be etched in stone:

Interventionists call this a syndrome because it is supposed to be seen as an affliction or something from which Americans need to recover, as if there were something unhealthy or harmful in becoming extremely wary of waging wars of choice in countries that we don’t understand very well for dubious and often unobtainable goals. On the contrary, the existence of this so-called “syndrome” is proof that the public is very sensibly recoiling from the repeated misjudgments and mistakes of their political leaders.

Andrew Sullivan adds:

It is not a syndrome to look twice before crossing the street, when you have been run over by a truck twice in the last decade. In any case, the parallels are so close as to be almost absurd. The president is trying to get support for a military campaign against a Baathist leader in a murderously divided Middle Eastern country in order to prevent the use of WMDs and to send a message to Iran. I mean: is there any more obvious analogy?

The polls show strong opposition among the public to the president’s Syria strike plan. Jim Manzi sees a message in this:

In movies, dictators and their hive societies are often portrayed as almost invincible war machines. In the real world, free societies since the time of the democracy in Athens have done pretty well for themselves in wars. Partly, this is because the support of the society prior to starting a war leads to sustained support in the face of inevitable setbacks. And partly it is because public support provides very useful information about the wisdom of the war in the first place. You might think that the last dozen years would have taught the most influential foreign-policy “experts” a little humility about their judgment in these matters. Apparently, you would be wrong.

I wish The Onion weren’t writing satire here:

WASHINGTON—As President Obama continues to push for a plan of limited military intervention in Syria, a new poll of Americans has found that though the nation remains wary over the prospect of becoming involved in another Middle Eastern war, the vast majority of U.S. citizens strongly approve of sending Congress to Syria.

I approve of dropping John McCain over Damascus. On his head.

UPDATE: This Syrian-American Christian woman, apparently a Republican (well, she says she is a longtime supporter of John McCain’s), appears to have had just about enough of the Arizona senator. Thanks to reader Leslie for sending this impassioned clip:

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