Here’s a quote from Tom Friedman’s column in this morning’s New York Times:

When you have a region beset by that many civil wars at once, it means there is no center, only sides. And when you intervene in the middle of a region with no center, you very quickly become a side.

I think that is a marvelous way to describe the current situation in the middle east today. The Republican insistence that we go bomb somebody – everybody – is reminiscent of the leadup to 2004 and the great Folly in Iraq, brought to you by the Dick.

We would quickly become a ‘side’, and ironically a side every other side despises because we don’t belong there. It isn’t our war. Sorry, but that is the truth. I know it’s a knee jerk reaction post 9/11 to want to jump in and ‘fix’ whatever is going on, but the fix just leads to more of whatever is going on, leading to other, more dastardly ‘fixes’ that create more of whatever is going on … well, you get the idea.

How about we sit this one out and worry about NATO, Ukraine and Vlad the Soon-to-be Desperate One. Vlad is going to get desperate in the very near future when his folks start feeling the effects of extreme sanctions that are going to start pinching their pockets real hard. That’s where our focus should be at the moment – not the middle east. A bunch of contractors being burned led to Fallujah #1 in Iraq – remember that? Go in – no don’t – go back in – withdraw. Wasted lives. War crime. Enough, already.