So now the Obama Administration is taking sides in the Syrian civil war.

After saying in April that the evidence that Syria's military used chemical weapons was inconclusive, the administration says now it's clear, and the CIA estimates that between 100 to 150 Syrians were killed by sarin gas.

Who knows?

The CIA has lied to us all before, and the previous Administration went to enormous lengths to lie us into a war in Iraq.

And it's awfully convenient to suddenly come up with this finding, just as the Syrian military is making huge gains against the rebels.

So count me skeptical, though I wouldn't put it past Assad, either.

But that doesn't mean the U.S. should jump into the middle of this civil war.

It's not like the rebels are all angels, either. Many of them are extreme rightwing fundamentalists, and some are affiliated with Al Qaeda.

How can we be sure that the weapons we're providing them today won't be used against us tomorrow?

No one likes to see a bloody civil war rage on and on. But it's not the responsibility of the United States to intervene, and interventions don't always end well, as we're seeing these days in Iraq and Libya.

Pouring more guns into a civil war is not a panacea. It could just increase the bloodshed.

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story Why Was This Spying Classified in the First Place?.

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