With All Due Congratulations to Ethiopia...

...on the success of the advance of their armed forces along with the Somali national government forces to the gates of Mogadishu, it's a pity that it took 12 years and Ethiopian resolve to begin to redress the consequences of American pusillanimity.

Outrages to national dignity have concrete, international consequences, and attempts to dismiss these real-world consequences of national failures of nerve as insignificant condemn not only the victims at hand to their fate, but also the incalculable but certain future victims who suffer the violence of emboldened thugs and bullies.


It is telling that, in all of the retrospectives on the life of Gerald Ford, the one image we have not seen on the networks ad infinitum from his tenure is the one which did the greatest damage, although Ford's personal responsibility for that image remains debatable.

Sins of omission are just as damning as sins of commission. After the fiascos of Desert One, the Beirut Barracks, Bakara Market, Khobar Towers, the USS Cole and the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies, one would presume this lesson had been learned, but we see in such things as Biden's disgraceful a priori opposition to pacifying Baghdad that such lessons are held lightly when the opportunity for political gain is sensed.