"We got the proof Assad gassed his own people but we can't show anybody 'cause it's top secret!"

The usual war-mongers were making the Sunday morning propaganda rounds on the major networks to spread the word that Assad is beyond bad and only America can stop him.

He gassed his own people, don't you know, just like that Saddam fellow next door. John Kerry has tons of proof but he can't show us because it's secret.

The unbridled arrogance that underlies these discussions is something to behold. Listening to the pro-war punditocracy you would never guess that two of the last three American interventions have been utterly disastrous for America; the third was merely disastrous for the recipients of America's largesse.

The debate, such as it is, is predicated on the assumption that America is indeed the city on the hill; just a little closer to God than anyone else, and therefore has a divine right to make war on the less enlightened peoples of the planet on whatever whim seizes the power-brokers of the moment.

Assad has several strikes against him. While he's been a solid enough guy in terms of keeping the peace with the only democracy in the Middle East, that isn't enough.

He's at the same time been all too palsy with the Ayatollahs. You know the ones; they've been months away from a nuclear weapon for over twenty years now, which when they finally figure it out, they will supposedly use to nuke the Holy Land.

Although few outside Netanyahu's spin circle will speak such nonsense in public, it does seem to motivate a wide swath of AIPAC dependent congressmen and senators in the US, who in addition to their duties lobbying for the Holy Land, still harbor a grudge over the fact that the Iranian masses turned against the leader we had bestowed upon them in favor of a clique of Koran-thumpers who had been living in France for 25 years.

Obviously the ingrates need to be taught a lesson.

Then there is the matter of Assad's obnoxious geographic domination of some crucial pipeline routes. Look at a map. We (and by that I mean Western oil multi-nationals) need a guy running that strategic real estate who is 100% in our pocket, not merely some easy-going despot who is happy enough to take on a few "enhanced interrogation" assignments on our behalf but then goes right back to having tea in Tehran.

No, the jig is up for Assad; he's gassed his own people, don't you know... the US administration has the proof... they just can't show anybody.

We just have to trust them.

After all, it's not as if they've ever lied to us...