Don't intervene without a Sherpa

Slate's Fred Kaplan asks: "If NATO is dropping bombs on Libya, why not on Syria? Aren't the two regimes equally murderous? Where do we draw the lines on these things, and why?" In search of answers, he flags a new book by Rory Stewart and Gerald Knaus called "Can Intervention Work?"

Kaplan writes: Stewart [a well-known author and member of the British Parliament] likens the advice he'd give humanitarian interventionists to the advice routinely given to mountain-climbing rescue societies. "Mountains," he writes, "are intrinsically risky and dangerous; they can defeat and kill even the best; therefore, if you can avoid climbing, do." And if you decide to climb on rescue missions anyway, "be prepared to turn back if conditions turn against you," for (to apply the metaphor to the issue at hand) "in interventions, as in a mountain rescue, the moral right and duty to protect lives does not require futile or destructive adventures." ... Taking another useful metaphor from mountain rescue, it's best to learn the environment, be honest about your capabilities, and trust an experienced guide.

Good advice. (Cartoon credit: Patrick Chappatte, International Herald Tribune)