Not that one should immediately jump to respond to every crisis. And nobody is suggesting American military intervention in Ukraine, for example.
Friedman brings up Syria, too. Yet the idea that America of all countries should just stay out of crises except within these amazingly limited parameters is just stunning:
Today, Obama’s critics say he must do “something” about Syria. I get it. Chaos there can come around to bite us. If there is a policy that would fix Syria, or even just stop the killing there, in a way that was self-sustaining, at a cost we could tolerate and not detract from all the things we need to do at home to secure our own future, I’m for it.
I'm for arming, training, and advising rebels. I don't even think we need to commit air power.
But the notion that we should only intervene--and note that Friedman even admits what our intelligence people have said about Syria becoming a threat to "bite us"--if we know for sure the policy will "fix" Syria is nonsense.
What will fix Syria with all its problems? There is no Silver Bullet perfect plan, that so many of his ilk think requires just sufficient big-brained thought to design.
All I ask is we attempt to bend events to be better for us or even just less worse.
"Just" stopping the killing would imply that a decisive Assad win is within that category. May I suggest that helping the rebels win faster is one way to stop the killing eventually.
Obviously, we have to be able to tolerate the cost. I mean, really, this is a big-brained policy recommendation?
And are we at the stage where spending on domestic priorities automatically trumps efforts to keep foreign problems from
My, my. Tom Friedman boldly stands with a perfect plan that costs us nothing and requires us to make no tough choices. The mind reels.
And I didn't even mention the best part of his advice--that whatever policy we implement, it should be "self-sustaining."
What does this even mean?
What policy anywhere on any subject is "self-sustaining." Are the Iranians and Russians funneling people, arms, and money into Syria to back Assad? How self-sustaining is that? Bending events takes effort. Just what is this rot?! Argghhh!!! The man is an idiot.
We've gone from leading the West from the front to leading the West from behind.
And now Friedman would just like to watch the world burn.
I weep when I contemplate that he is considered by our liberal brethren to be a deep thinker.
Okay. You know it's coming. It always does by this point.
I'm not saying 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.
