Proposals for U.S. military intervention in Syria are a dangerous mistake.

Do we know that the Syrian government is responsible for gas attacks against Syrian people? Remember “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq where evidence was fabricated to justify what the U.S. government wanted to do?

But, even if the Assad regime did release the gas, military intervention will only escalate the violence in the country — more suffering and more death. When the nonviolent opposition to Assad turned to armed resistance, the death count shot up astronomically.

Almost always, increasing violence doesn’t resolve a conflict; it simply accelerates it.

If we want to end the conflict in Syria and enable Syrians to live together in peace, we need to cut off weapons and ammunition supplies from all sources, use nonviolent methods to challenge the conflicts, and negotiations to bring the sides together. I hope all Maine people will speak out against U.S. military intervention and in support of nonviolent conflict resolution.

Larry Dansinger

Monroe