Krauthammer: Obama is right, McCain is wrong on Syria

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Hawkish U.S. Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have called for direct U.S. military involvement in Syria, but countervailing voices say: Cool it.

Charles Krauthammer’s is one of those voices.

“I think Obama is right on this and McCain is wrong,” Krauthammer said. “I think this is not Libya. Libya is an oil well with a long beach and a primitive army. Syria has a serious air force, a serious army, and this would be a serious war.”

Krauthammer proposed reviving “the Reagan Doctrine,” a covert strategy of supporting insurgencies. Krauthammer first coined the term in 1985.

“I think what we should adopt is the Reagan Doctrine, the way he combated the expansion of Soviet influence in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola. You support the insurgency. You don’t put Americans on the ground or in the air,” he said. “And why we aren’t arming and training and helping the insurgents in Turkey, you know, the ones who defected into Turkey out of Syria, I do not understand.”

Krauthammer is right — and not the only bright mind — to point to the Reagan Doctrine, but he misses an important point: The president’s actions in Libya — successful though they might have been — established a precedent of some kind of military intervention even when the United States doesn’t have a compelling national security interest in a conflict. In a press release, Sen. Jim Webb observed that problem with the Libyan model and, like Krauthammer, urged restraint when it comes to Syria:

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