Syria Is Indeed Iraq

Tom Friedman is a genius. It’s very, very difficult to write a frequent column that expresses deeply conventional wisdom in a fresh, hey-kids-I-just-thought-of-this voice. He is the id of the Washington Establishment.

His column today, titled “Syria Is Iraq,” shows Friedman at full steam. Now that Iraq is in the rear-view mirror, he allows that the “only reason Iraq has any chance for a decent outcome today is because America was on the ground with tens of thousands of troops to act as that well-armed midwife, reasonably trusted and certainly feared by all sides.” And his “gut” is pretty accurate to tell him that “Syria will require the same to have the same chance.”