Lord Palmerston, a 19th century British Peer and Liberal prime minister, who was a very wise man, once observed, “Nations have neither allies nor friends; they have interests.”
So what is our interest in Syria? Let me strongly suggest the answer is absolutely nothing.
All this Sturm und Drang is unproven speculation ginned up by media hysterics and right out of the political primer which argues, “never let a crisis, real or manufactured, go to waste.”
Given the temperament of the Obama presidency, this is hardly a surprise.
The nostrum that everyone’s affairs are our business is the pious conceit and moral pretentiousness of quintessential busybodies like Woodrow Wilson.
In fact, as historian Victor Hanson points out, between 1912 and 1916, Wilson sent troops into Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Since post World War II, we’ve intervened militarily in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Grenada, Haiti (again), Iraq, Iran, Korea, Liberia, Libya, Lebanon, Panama (again), Somalia, Serbia, Vietnam and Zaire, a breathtaking list and so much for our isolationist tradition.
One of the cardinal rules for being a good neighbor is to mind one’s own business, unless one is asked for help and ignore the leftist impulse to impose one’s will, always for their own good of course.
The odds here are that this nonsense gets a thundering “No” vote in the House of some 300 votes.
Then watch Obama drop the matter and head for the golf course. Predictable.
Tom Coffey
Herricks
