I believe that what is going on in Syria is an atrocity. A dictator is killing his own people with weapons of mass destruction. Hitler did that. Saddam Hussein did that. And now Assad, a weakling ophthalmologist turned dictator is doing that.

However, nobody has appointed the United States as the world’s policeman, judge and executioner.

I do not see any way for the United States to win by intervening militarily. Innocent people will be killed, this time not by weapons of mass destruction launched by Syria, but weapons of mass destruction – missiles – launched by the holier-than-thou United States of America. We would be fomenting the strife that’s already going on. Our national image in the Middle East would sink further. We would give more fodder to Iran. We would open opportunities for al Qaeda in the power vacuum of the failed state of Syria.

It’s time to stay away from another war-like effort.

There is only one military effort that I’d approve of or vote for: Taking out Assad directly. Why don’t we figure out exactly where he is – and don’t tell me we can’t do that – and lob one, exactly one missile, and take care of the problem. We’ll minimize the killing of innocent civilians and we’ll take out the single lone culprit: Assad. Then let the country sort out its own problems.

It’s time for the United States to be isolationist again for a few years or a decade. Let’s fix our roads, our schools, and our energy infrastructure. Let’s invest in education of our young children. Let’s work on job creation and job retention. Let’s compete with China.

Let’s be isolationist.