Just Words?

In the Sunday New York Times "News of the Week in Review," the author, Jane Perlez, cites a list of "messages" that America should send to the Middle East: "To Israel, reassurances of American steadfastness coupled with clear red-light warnings on its actions toward the Palestinians; to Syria, warnings to rein in Hezbollah; to Egypt and Jordan, admonitions not to feed the angry rhetoric on the Arab side; and to Yasser Arafat, a warning not to add to the violence."

Whether the items on the list are wise or foolish, or whether the list is incomplete or insufficient, is less important than the fact that it abstracts from the essential question: What is America ready, willing, and able to do to enforce any such reassurances, warnings, and admonitions? For a brief time after the Gulf War many people in the Middle East sought to feign friendship with and hide enmity toward America because no one wanted to risk being America's enemy.  Since then however, America has protected no friend and hurt no enemy. Indeed, its "even handedness" has blurred the distinction between being America's friend and America's enemy.

The timeless axiom of statecraft is that unless and until a government is ready, willing, and able to safeguard its friends and make its enemies quake, its reassurances, warnings and admonitions will be followed only by people more foolish than those who promulgate them.