Syria is a bloody mess. An evil regime, rebels who may now be more terrorists than reformists (let alone democrats), millions of refugees and more than 100,000 people dead, and some of them victims of chemical weapons.

Here, in the Middle East, the U.S. is often reviled for what it does. Now it is being criticized for what it has not done: Intervene in Syria.

We usually don’t go political in this space, and I won’t go far, but I have just one question:

Where is the U.S. strategic interest in Syria?

OK, another question.

Why should Syria be the U.S.’s fight? Why should the U.S. spend lives and treasure on trying to make sense of senseless slaughter? Isn’t that what United Nations peacekeepers are for?

Let’s back up and stipulate that the Assad regime is evil. Fair enough.

But are the guys out there fighting against him — those who are the most effective and the most militant — going to produce a more dignified, modern state? Aren’t a lot of those guys affiliated with Al Qaeda? You know, the Twin Towers guys?

Maybe Assad will hold on; maybe the rebels will win.

Either way, what is the upside to the U.S. getting involved?

Boots on the ground? Forget it. It’s a civil war. One block is your enemy, the next is your putative ally. You never want to get between sides in a civil war.

Even something like “surgical” air strikes by drones or cruise missiles … can the military be sure of killing the “right” people? When, again, Syria is one big mixed-up mess of “good” guys and “bad” guys?

The only justification for any sort of action, like X number of missiles lobbed at something or somebody … is to demonstrate that the U.S. can still intervene where it chooses.

Which is not nearly a good enough reason to have anything to do with Syria. The world knows the U.S. can strike when and where it wants. Not shooting at Syria will not change that.

Let Syria’s neighbors step in, if they want. Turkey, feel free. Even Iran, Iraq, the Gulf states. Send money. Send troops. Take a stand. It’s your patch.

For distant polities, like anyone in North America, Syria is too complicated, too violent and who wins, at the end of the day, doesn’t matter in the realm of realpolitik.

There. Done. Back to sports.