In "An Assault on Humanity" (The Spectrum, Feb. 12, 2012), the editorial board called for the U.S. to apply its "great model" from Libya in Syria.
A full-scale invasion is too much, however. Libya works as a great model for how we should handle it. Use airstrikes and drones to prevent forces from continuing their rampage on Homs and other cities.
Are they still as confident and sure?
Everyone from Mitt Romney to Hillary Clinton praised the death of Gaddafi. There was a bipartisan consensus that, as Clinton put it, "We came. We saw. He died."
The hard work was done -smooth sailing ahead. Or so the talking heads said.
Therein lies the problem with American foreign policy: it is so incredibly shortsighted and arrogant that it deserves ridicule. You cannot expect the stars to fall into place just because you took out one madman. This line of thinking, which dominates the airwaves, newspapers and congressional chambers, is so simplistic that it makes a mockery of logical thought.
Yevgeny Y. Satanovsky, president of the Institute of the Middle East in Moscow, said of American policy: "You are the Soviet Union now, guys, and you pay the price. You are trying to distribute democracy the way we tried to distribute socialism. You do it the Western way. They hate both."
How much clearer can it be? We are now the imperialists. We reap what we sow, and so far that's four Americans.
How many more people - ambassadors, soldiers, men, women and children - need to die or get hurt before we realize how radically counterproductive our Middle Eastern policy is?
Unfortunately, with Nobel unworthy Barack and warmonger Mitt the only two "real" choices this November, it seems like a lot more.
