Labor Day Open Thread [9.2.13]

Labor Day Open Thread [9.2.13]

8 Comments
Happy Labor Day! Hope that you and yours are enjoying this holiday meant to celebrate the achievements and contributions of the American worker. Unfortunately, too many of us no longer remember what this holiday is meant to commemorate and a disturbing number of us are specifically disdainful of many of our fellow workers, even as we might be a slightly better off version of labor. This holiday was created by Labor Unions and today, Labor Unions are not only at an ebb (as employers have been able to buy their own government influence and the unions themselves succumbed to various unhealthy tendencies), but are disdained by people who have specifically benefited from their work. Paul Krugman provides the Must Read piece of the day....
What can we drop (other than bombs) on Syrian weddings and funerals?

What can we drop (other than bombs) on Syrian weddings and funerals?

11 Comments
The Syria talks seems to assume that bombing or turning a blind eye to atrocities are our only two choices. That, obviously, isn't true.
The best interim solution could be a UN-monitored ceasefire as briefly occurred under the Kofi Annan plan in 2012. All sides are dependent on outside backers, and even those who most want to fight need weapons, ammunition and money. Heavy pressure could be put on them to agree to a peace conference and a temporary ceasefire. This would be a Lebanese-style truce – unsatisfactory but better than full-scale war. A peace conference on this basis could be the political and diplomatic counterpart to the limited US military strike President Obama is contemplating. In practice there has been a stalemate in most of Syria for the last year. If the Syrian army did use poison gas, it shows it does not have the strength to retake even the inner rebel-held suburbs of Damascus. It is better therefore for the battle lines to be frozen under some form of UN supervision. Long-term solutions will only begin to be feasible when Syrians are no longer at the mercy of what Northern Ireland politicians used to call "the politics of the last atrocity".