Russia and China cast a rare double veto at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to block a U.S.- and European-backed draft resolution condemning Syria for its brutal crackdown on protesters.
Sheesh, the Russians and Chinese didn't even bother to flip a coin over who had to do the deed in the Security Council and who got to pretend to respond to our outreach by voting with us. They both stiffed us!
It boggles my mind that the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is even discussed as a doctrine for NATO. Fighting some else's battle is always a war of choice. It may be morally right to intervene, but it should never just be a duty. We'd be pretty darned busy, otherwise.
And in a world where Responsibility to Protect Our Son of a Bitch dominates, it distracts us from being prepared to defend our national interests.
Worse, as a former national security adviser said, we can't say that we aren't friends with some of the sons of birches:
“We have paid a price,” Jones said of the decision to call for Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. “Our policy with regard to Mubarak as interpreted by some of our closest Arab allies in the Gulf has not gone over well.”
“In their interpretation of our dumping President Mubarak very hastily, [it] answered the question of what we would be likely to do if that happened in their countries. So there is a chasm there that somehow has to be bridged,” he added.
Not that it was wrong to usher Mubarak out. It would have been nice to have pushed reforms before we had to make such a stark choice, but when we had to make that choice, we didn't really have much of a choice in Egypt. I'm willing to tolerate a SOB when national interests require it---that is our first responsibility. But there are limits to what we can tolerate. If you want to be our friend, there is nothing wrong with knowing that.
R2P and R2POSOB are two extremes of automatic behavior that lacks--what's the word, again?--oh yeah, nuance. When we can, we shouldn't have a policy of R2POSOB. Let the Russians and Chinese have them as friends, and good riddance. Our national interests are the only thing we have a responsibility to protect.
