I posted a doozy of a diary last week... Over 5,000 words, with footnotes and recommended reading.
A key part of my argument was that the US government needs to do much more to mitigate the refugee crisis caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That would include a massive effort to help our erstwhile adversaries Syria and Iran, which have taken in vast numbers of people.
A corollary argument stressed the importance of confronting the threats to freedom posed by reactionary Islamists. Our best strategy for doing that, in my view, requires that we forego the polarizing belligerence of the Bush administration in favor of a morally unifying approach.
The upshot of the diary was to show how those two goals - showing mercy and advancing freedom - are deeply intertwined.
It was a long, not easily-tackled argument. Anyone who took the time to get through it would have had a lot to mull over. I thought the effort was justified, though, because you can’t save the world with a haiku. Or can you?
Read More