Last week the House passed yet another bill placing sanctions on Iran and Syria, bringing us closer to another war in the Middle East. We are told that ever harsher sanctions finally will force the targeted nations to bend to our will. Yet the ineffectiveness of previous sanctions teaches us nothing; in truth sanctions lead to war more than they prevent war.

Until last year, Libyan sanctions were touted as a great success story. The regime would change its behavior. Yet NATO bombed the country anyway.

Last week we learned that President Obama signed an intelligence “finding” directing the CIA to covertly assist rebels in Syria. The administration seems determined to fight another war in Syria that has nothing to do with American national interests.

We already know that a similar “finding” was signed under the latest Bush administration directing U.S. intelligence to undermine the Iranian government and promote regime change there.

In Syria we see how our interventionist policies backfire and make us less secure. Recent news reports point to ties between the Syrian opposition and al-Queda. A recent article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, exclaimed that, “Al-Queda turns tide for rebels in battle for eastern Syria.”

According to another recent press report, German intelligence services estimate that nearly 100 terrorist attacks have been committed by al-Queda or related organizations in Syria over the past six months.

This raises the question of whether the U.S. administration is supporting the same people in Syria that we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed these same concerns earlier this year when asked whether the United States has been reluctant to arm the Syrian rebels. She answered, “To whom are you delivering them? We know al-Queda. Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria. Are we supporting al-Queda in Syria?”

That is a very good question. It clearly demonstrates that the United States has no business at all being involved in the Syrian civil war.