Please, not again. Yet there it was in a news report: Finding of strong evidence that the regime in Syria used chemical weapons against its own people raises chances of “a U.S. military strike.”

It would not be a major incursion, administration officials said. Just a little war, a few cruise missiles aimed at strategic targets to send a message.

Do we never learn? Violence begets only more violence. Warlike acts lead to real wars, and we have enough of those on our hands already in that part of the world.

There is recognition of that in Washington.

It’s not a matter of backing the right side in the conflict there. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that after two years of fighting, no single rebel group is yet capable of taking over with American help.

The situation in Syria is all too familiar, an oppressive military regime on one side and radical Muslims on the other.

President Barack Obama has declared use of chemical weapons to be a red line that, if crossed, would trigger U.S. action.

Yet surely there must be some alternative to a military strike. Surely.

— Paris (Tenn.) Post-Intelligencer