Michael Totten At The City Journal: ‘The Friend Of My Enemy Is My Enemy’

Full piece here.

‘It’s hard enough for Americans to find goodwill in the Arab world, but it isn’t impossible.  None of the people I spoke to in Beirut who groused about Washington’s perceived support for Assad are anti-American.  I’ve known some of them for almost a decade.  All are political liberals who more or less share our values, which largely explains why they oppose the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah axis in the first place.  There is no upside to alienating these people.

Joshua Landis’ blog here.

Al Jazeera live blog on Syria here.

Interesting paper here.

Related On This SiteUpdate And Repost: Via Youtube-Uncommon Knowledge With Fouad Ajami And Charles Hill

A Few Thoughts On Foreign Policy-Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘Conservative Principles Of World Order’

Too late to act with lower risk and more gain? Ralph Peters At The NY Post: ‘Too Late For Syria’

From Michael Totten: ‘The Syrian War Gets Even Uglier’

Fareed Zakaria On Youtube: ‘Stay Out Of Syria’

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Still trying to hear good arguments…

It’s kind of bizzaro-land in our politics right now, flipped upside-down, where political incentive for those usually strong on national defense is not forthcoming for this President’s actions in Syria, even though we could see Syria coming from a mile away.

Adam Garfinkle here:

‘There is something to be learned here, and there is even a chance that some Administration principles may belatedly learn it: The mantra that the use of force, even the indirect use of force via arms provision to allies or would-be clients, should always be a last resort, is just that—a mantra with no relevance to real life. This is like, as I have said before, advising a cancer victim to wait until the very last moment to consider surgery. It epitomizes the Neville Chamberlain school of diplomacy ‘

Charles Hill and Fouad Ajami argue that this century calls for renewed American exceptionalism, and our bold leadership is necessary because if we don’t lead, someone who doesn’t share our values probably will.  Much like we took over many British projects with Truman after WWII, we needed to act in Syria. Update And Repost: Via Youtube-Uncommon Knowledge With Fouad Ajami And Charles Hill

Too late to act with lower risk and higher gain? Ralph Peters At The NY Post: ‘Too Late For Syria’

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More from Rick Francona here.

Zakaria has been arguing that America would no longer get to be the ’director,’ and that we are seeing the rise of the rest, especially Asia.  In the new piece above, he’s now arguing that we may become little more than bit players.

Here are some previous Zakaria articles, for those interested, as I think he is a deeper analyst with a wide ranging mind, who’s hit a slightly more liberal, mass audience, sweet spot:

‘Are America’s Best Days Behind Us?

-”How To Restore The American Dream

Where he’s coming from, on this site:  Fareed Zakaria At Foreign Policy: ‘Remembering Samuel Huntington’

There was the plagiarism kerfuffle a while back.