Leon of Arabia

Channeling T.E. Lawrence, Leon Wieseltier, the erudite literary editor of The New Republic, felt the need to bash President Obama for "dithering" on Libya. Unlike Lawrence, Leon is no Arabist. But never mind.

Wieseltier writes:

"There are various ways in which the horror can be brought to an end. Is a no-fly zone really too complicated to negotiate? Then let NATO planes fly over Tripoli to shoot down any Libyan aircraft that make war on the Libyan population. Is the United States really prevented by its past from deploying the small number of troops that would be required to rescue Tripoli from Qaddafi’s bloody grip? Then let a multilateral expeditionary force be raised and a humanitarian intervention be launched to free Libya from its tyrant and then leave Libya to the Libyans."

An anonymous writer and combat veteran begs to differ:

"I found this Leon Wieseltier piece, with its glib assumptions about both the Arabic-speaking world ("I do not see a Middle East rising up in anger at the prospect of American intervention") and the ease with which military operations could be conducted ("let NATO planes fly over Tripoli to shoot down any Libyan aircraft that make war on the Libyan population") to be the worst of the genre and entirely deserving of the scorn with which it was greeted. As a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who has also spent much of my adult life living in and studying the Arabic-speaking world, it just scares the crap out of me that people can still talk so casually about military interventions in the Middle East."

It should scare the crap out of all Americans. Fortunately, Leon of Arabia isn't calling the shots. Wiser minds than his are at the helm of our foreign affairs.