THE BORDER QUESTION

This email from someone with military expertise helps a little:

We certainly can do what you suggest, and with a handful of guys on the ground. The Bush Administration is choosing not to do so. This may be for reasons we can learn from open sources (e.g., the political fallout from that incident in which the bus full of fighters we bombed was claimed to be a bus full of Mother Theresa clones) or, it may devolve from circumstances we are not privy to. What is clear is that for now, at least, the Bush administration is giving a pass to some terror sanctuaries/patrons (e.g., Syria, Arafatistan, etc.) and not to others. Without inside info, our problem as spectators is that a brilliant strategy clothed in perfect tactical deception looks much like incoherence wrapped in duplicity. Israel managed to stop infiltration from Lebanon, by the very same crowd now streaming from Syria into Iraq, for 18 years. How come the Great Satan isn’t doing in Iraq what the Little Satan did on its border with Lebanon?

Good question. I’m sorry but the time when we gave the administration the benefit of the doubt re: grand strategy is over. If leaving the Syrian border open is a choice, we have a right to know why. If we have a “flypaper” strategy, we should be informed by the president. I’m all for keeping operational issues secret, but in a war where public support is crucial, you have to explain overall strategy. When there’s an obvious question hanging in the air, we deserve an answer.