Thomas Friedman swoons over the president's drama by extolling his move to "threaten to threaten."
What makes it especially worthy of flinging panties at the POTUS is the degree of difficulty that our poor president finds himself in during these complicated days:
Obama is dealing with an Arab world that no modern president has had to confront. Until 2010, the Arab Middle East had been relatively stable for 35 years. The combination of the cold war, the rise of oil-funded dictators who built strong security states and the peace between Egypt and Israel imposed order.
Relatively stable he says. Since 1978. After the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, I assume he means.
Oh, that's a challenge I can't pass by! Let the relative stability and order commence!
1978--PLO starts building up strength with Soviet arms in Lebanon (as civil war begun in 1975 still rages until 1984)
1979--Fighting between North and South Yemen.
1979--The shah of Iran is deposed and Iran becomes an Islamic Republic. Hilarity ensues as jihadi students seize our embassy staff in Tehran and hold them hostage for well over a year.
1979--Soviet Union invades Afghanistan (until withdrawing a decade later in 1989).
1979--Eritrean rebels begin resistance to Ethiopia.
1979--Libya invades Chad.
1979--Arab League puts sanctions on Egypt for peace treaty with Israel.
1979--Islamists seize Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia and French special forces lead assault to retake it.
1980--We lose 8 servicemen in a failed rescue attempt that ended at Desert One inside Iran.
1980--US flips to supporting Somalia against Ethiopia, which had flipped to Soviet and Cuban support (including troops from latter).
1980--Iraq invades Iran. Fighting and several hundred thousand dead until 1988.
1980--Kurdish revolt in Iraq begins.
1980--Soviet (1,000) and Cuban (4,000) advisors in South Yemen.
1980--Military coup in Turkey.
1981--Egyptian President Anwar Sadat assassinated, putting that new peace between Israel and Egypt in doubt.
1981--Libya proclaims union with Chad.
1981--Israel destroys Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.
1981--US Navy aircraft shoot down to Libyan fighters.
1982--Israel invades Lebanon and fights both PLO and Syrian armed forces occupying parts of Lebanon. Israel's Christian allies commit atrocity at two Palestinian refugee camps. US Marines are sent as part of multi-national force to separate combatants.
1982--Syria kills at least 10,000 civilians at Hama over three weeks.
1983--US intervenes in Lebanon. 241 Marines killed by pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian terrorists. Syria shoots down 2 American planes and takes one crewman prisoner.
1983--Turkish Cyprus declares independence.
1984--Our CIA station chief in Lebanon is kidnapped by jihadis and is later killed.
1984--Libya mines the Red Sea.
1984--22 killed when Hezbollah bombs our embassy in Lebanon.
1985--Israel bombs PLO headquarters in Tunisia.
1985--Palestinian terrorists hijack cruise ship and kill 1 American.
1985--Egyptian commandos storm plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists, resulting in death of 60 hostages.
1985--Palestinian terrorists attack Rome and Vienna airports
1986--US warplanes strike Libya in retaliation for Libyan terrorism against US troops in Germany.
1987--Libya and Chad go to war again.
1987--US involved in Iran-Iraq War "tanker war" in Persian Gulf. Continues more intensely in 1988.
1987--As Iranians seek to stoke problems in Mecca, Saudi security forces kill 400 Iranians on pilgrimage.
1987--First Intifada against Israel begins.
1988--Iraqis gas Kurds as part of massive military operation to crush Kurdish resistance.
1988--Al Qaeda formed.
1988--Libya blows up passenger plane over Scotland.
1989--US forces shoot down two more Libyan fighters.
1989--Hezbollah murders US Marine officer they were holding captive.
1990--North and South Yemen unite.
1990--Iraq conquers and annexes Kuwait.
1991--Algerian civil war lasting a decade and killing perhaps 150,000 people begins.
1991--Persian Gulf War to liberate Kuwait. Iraq dumps oil in Persian Gulf and fires missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia.
1991--civil war in Somalia, eventually leading to US intervention and Blackhawk Down battle in 1993.
1991--Shia revolt in southern Iraq put down brutally and Iraqi Kurds become de facto independent.
1992--sanctions inspections games with Saddam's Iraq begin until 2003. No-fly zone battles begin.
1993--Eritrea declares independence from Ethiopia after referendum.
1993--Iraqi plot to kill former President George H. W. Bush and American retaliation.
1994--Iraq deploys troops near Kuwait in apparent threat to invade again. US deploys troops to Kuwait and region.
1996--Khobar Towers bombing of US military housing in Saudi Arabia--19 Americans killed.
1996--Osama bin Laden declares jihad on America.
1996--Taliban capture Kabul, Afghanistan.
1998--Al Qaeda bombs US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
1998--US bombs Sudan suspected chemical weapons plant and al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.
1998--4 days of US and British bombing of Iraqi WMD sites.
1998--Pakistan goes nuclear. India formally follows.
2000--Armed intifida against Israel begins.
2000--USS Cole bombed in Yemen port by al Qaeda.
2001--9/11 attack on United States and beginning of Afghanistan War.
2003--US invasion of Iraq and war until 2011 withdrawal.
2005--Israel withdraws from Gaza.
2006--Lebanon War.
2007--Hamas seizes control of Gaza by defeating Fatah in conflict.
2007--Iranians seize Royal Navy sailors in Persian Gulf.
2009--Gaza War punitive raid by Israel.
The Arab Spring got its start in 2010 in Tunisia, so we end our tour of relative stability.
Note that from 1978 to 1991 there was the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union which raised the threat of nuclear war in any crisis.
Yeah, poor President Obama. He didn't have the luxury of dealing with problems in a saner age of relative stability and simplicity. The order is just uncanny. I miss it so.
I can see why Friedman would think about thinking that President Obama's job is so much more difficult that we have to give him a break if he makes mistakes.
Wait for it!
I'm not saying that you couldn't drown in a pool of Thomas Friedman's wisdom. But you would have to be drunk and face down to do so.
