A Festival of Lies -- Thomas Friedman, New York TimesTHE historian Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote a brutally clear-eyed piece in The National Review, looking back at America’s different approaches to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan and how, sadly, none of them could be said to have worked yet.
“Let us review the various American policy options for the Middle East over the last few decades,” Hanson wrote. “Military assistance or punitive intervention without follow-up mostly failed. The verdict on far more costly nation-building is still out. Trying to help popular insurgents topple unpopular dictators does not guarantee anything better. Propping up dictators with military aid is both odious and counterproductive. Keeping clear of maniacal regimes leads to either nuclear acquisition or genocide — or 16 acres of rubble in Manhattan. What have we learned? Tribalism, oil, and Islamic fundamentalism are a bad mix that leaves Americans sick and tired of the Middle East — both when they get in it and when they try to stay out of it.”
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My Comment: The Victor Davis Hanson article that Thomas Friedman is praising (deservedly so in my opinion) is here. On a side note .... even though this speech was done 3 years ago .... filled with promise and hope .... and one that I recall Thomas Friedman strongly supported ..... now (unfortunately) feels like empty rhetoric and unsustainable goals.
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