'Oh, Now He Tells Us'

At Ricochet, James Lileks writes:

In this week’s Economist, a book review begins thus:

THE United States must befriend Turkey and Iran while loosening its ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Must it? Let’s see: court Turkey from a position of weakness, and put on our flirtiest nijab to see if Iran will consider downgrading us to “Sorta Kinda Satan, depending,” then loosen our ties with the region’s most successful democracy and the regrettably indispensable kingdom that sells us vital oil. It’s crazy, but it just might work! Who’s saying these brave things?

That is the central message of a new book by Stephen Kinzer, a former Middle East correspondent of the New York Times.

Ah. I’m sure these thoughts came to him when he ceased to be a Times correspondent, undertook a mental high colonic to purge his mind of the journalist’s objectivity, sat down with chin against his fist in the classic “Thinker” pose, and mused “Now how do I really think about things?”