Syria: To Do or Not To Do?

The news is all about Syria. How can any people of one nation indiscriminately kill its own citizens—men, women and children? Do we take punitive action for this inhumane use of nerve gas? Are we sure it was President Assad who ordered its use? Who exactly are the good guys and who the bad guys in Syria? Or are both sides bad? I’m a fairly well-informed person, and I don’t have a clue. What exactly would our punitive action be, and against whom? Would this involve us in another war or would it be just a punishing police action and would that action have the effect we’d want it to have or would it just stir the pot even more than it’s being stirred now? Too many questions, too few answers. The world saw what mustard gas did to people in WWI, and the world voted never again to allow the use of such weapons. And if the chemical warfare in Syria doesn’t fall into that category, then I don’t know a red line from a blue line. I don’t know how the rest of the nations of the world can stand by and leave it to the US to determine what action should be taken. What good is the United Nations as a governing body? We tried isolationism in WW I, when we decided not to get involved in the disputes in Europe. Until we discovered that if we didn’t get involved, we might be fighting the Germans right here in the United States. I think the same logic applies here. We just can’t afford to stand by and let Assad or his henchmen get by with this atrocious act.

Back to ES3. A few more words about V’s. A V can consist of more than one word, with what traditionalists call “helping verbs” because these words “help” to show some aspect of the action of the V. You can think of the whole bunch as being the V, with the last word in the sequence the one that carries the main meaning. For example, “Charlie (should have taken) his job more seriously.” The three words make up the V, with the last word, taken, providing the main meaning. And the pattern for that sentence would be S-V-O. What about the words “more seriously”? Ignore them; they’re just adverbial fluff.

Check out the following sentences and determine the basic pattern of each.
1. That signature looks phony.
2. Cats like milk.
3. Happy at the sight of a new face, Bill greeted Charlie at the door.
4. Charlie often hikes for hours before sunrise.
5. These exercises are insane.
6. We are concerned for his health.
7. Our school systems often forget their obligations to the students.
8. My favorite kind of homemade fudge is made with peanut butter.
9. Helen Jones is a distant cousin of mine.
10. Charlie only seems sincere.
11. Anyone in school knows the agony of required writing.
12. His publishing company specializes in children’s books.
13. Every week brings some new impossible task.
14. Their living room overlooks the whole lake.
15. She always gets mad at me.
16. She always gets her man.
17. The book didn’t include any information about the author.
Answers: 1. S-V-S 2. S-V-O 3. S-V-O 4. S-V 5. S-V-S 6. S-V 7. S-V-O 8. S-V 9. S-V-S 10. S-V-S 11. S-V-O 12. S-V 13. S-V-O 14. S-V-O 15. S-V-S 16. S-V-O 17. S-V-O