Editor’s note: For a translation of fubar, see this entry in the Urban Dictionary.

Today we saw two headlines out of Syria, so close together you couldn’t help but notice the coincidence:

Flow of Westerners to Syria Prompts Security Concerns

Western intelligence agencies visit Syria over militants

The “flow of Westerners” in the first headline refers to young people leaving the United States and Europe for Syria to fight for the rebels. Among this flow, mentioned in the second headline, are spooks from Britain, and perhaps other Western nations, who travelled to Damascus to consult about the progress of the war.

Other news:

Secretary of State John Kerry says that Iran is not invited to the upcoming peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, where representatives of thirty countries will attend. Why? Because Iran actively supports one of the parties to the conflict, and it opposes a transitional government in Syria. I guess Bashar al Assad opposes a transitional government, too.

The United States pressures the Free Syrian Army to attend the peace talks, even though it supports several parties to the conflict, and opposes any transitional government that could include Bashar al Assad. The U. S. would look downright sketchy if the people we deem the good guys didn’t show up.

In the north of Syria, the moderate rebels and Islamist fighters from al-Qaeda fight each other, hard. In the south, near Lebanon, Iran’s fighters from Hezbollah have entered the war on the Syrian government’s side. Meantime, Saudi Arabia supports Sunni Islamist fighters in Syria and Anbar, against Shia governments in Damascus and Baghdad.

As one of my sailor friends would have said when I was in the navy, “This war is fucked up.”

The wisdom in this gentleman’s observation is that all wars are fucked up.