There’s more coverage and analysis of the current inferno in the Middle East than can really be summarized in a few short blog posts, but I’ll note Dear Leader’s deep thoughts on the subject, expressed in private at the G-8 summit and picked up by a wayward microphone:
“See the irony is that what they [i.e., the UN] need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s— and it’s over,” Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll.
Okay… On a related note, Michael Oren in The New Republic has a piece today arguing that Israel should attack Syria in order to convince Bashar Assad to cut off funding for Hezbollah and deter Iran from meddling with militant groups. But as Haggai of American Footprints points out, Oren’s own book on the Six-Day War shows that massive military strikes aimed at cowing foes can have dire and unexpected consequences. As the past five years should’ve taught everyone. It’s all well and good to say that Syria is evil and behind Hezbollah’s every move—although that, as far as I can tell, isn’t an absolute certainty—and another to think realistically about what broadening the war would actually mean in practice.
