David Frum Profile picture
May 9 4 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Biden making the same error w/r/t Israel that he previously made with Ukraine: trying to micro-manage from a distance somebody else's defensive war by limiting categories of weapons. This error doesn't limit war. This error prolongs war, by denying the ally the means of success.
I often think the Biden foreign policy would produce more success if its architects were less clever. "Give the Ukrainians/Israelis enough that they don't lose, but not enough to win" is an idea to baffle all lesser minds.
The micro-management of Israel's war is one part of a much bigger scheme: an Arab force to police Gaza, reform of the Palestinian Authority, a Saudi-US defense agreement, etc. etc.

Less clever people would have arrived at a simpler plan: fight Hamas until it's beaten.
Biden will seek re-election in November on a foreign policy record that includes the fiasco of the Afghanistan exit, inconclusive wars in Europe and Middle East, no new trade agreements. He needed one clear success. Israel's war could have been it. But no. Too simple.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with David Frum

David Frum Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @davidfrum

Dec 9
I was glad to be invited onto @Morning_Joe this morning to talk about Syria. The show is one of the most important platforms in US politics. With Trump threatening to jail his critics, small d-democrats must stand together. I always speak freely without fear anywhere I appear.
I’ll recapitulate here what I said this morning. I reminded viewers of President-elect Trump’s statement that Syria is none of US business - and his VP-elect’s bad habit of repeating Russian propaganda that the Assad regime protected minorities.
The Syrian civil war - and Russian atrocities to support Assad- drove half the Syrian population into exile. Most went to Turkey; many to Europe. That migration powered the rise of the far right in Europe - contributed to Brexit - and helped elect Trump in 2016.
Read 6 tweets
Dec 1
Don't be misdirected. The nomination of Kash Patel slathers frosting and sprinkles on the outrage ... but the outrage is the announced firing of Director Wray. Latest in @TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Even if Patel nomination, like Matt Gaetz's for AG, eventually collapses and he is replaced by a less ridiculous nominee - the harm is that Trump is treating the FBI as an extension of presidential power. Read here theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
In Watergate, President Nixon covertly tried (and failed) to corrupt the FBI and other security agencies.

Trump is opening his second administration with a flagrantly public attempt to corrupt the FBI and other security agencies.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Read 6 tweets
Nov 18
Canadian governments - federal, provincial, municipal - better have plans ready for when displaced asylum-seekers (thousands? tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?) attempt to cross the border from the United States into Canada.
Under present law and policy, border-crossers from the US can be refused entry into Canada. But that policy will become hard to enforce if the number of border-crosses gets very big.canada.ca/en/immigration…
The pressure of migrant numbrers collapsed the German borders in 2015. Once Germany opened, hundreds of thousands of people arrived in a very few weeks from all over the world. Brexit, Trump, all the present era of reactionary authoritarian nationalism trace back to that moment.
Read 6 tweets
Nov 15
One of my best friends in elementary school was a boy named Brian. He vanished from class during our 6th grade year: sick. No, we could not visit, the teacher said. We were encouraged to draw and write cards instead. 1/x
The card-writing became a regular ritual for our class and for Brian's friends. Then came the day when the teacher solemnly informed the class that Brian had died. He had succumbed to childhood leukemia, a hopeless killer in the early 1970s. 2/x
Today, childhood leukemia has a 90% survival rate, thanks to a sophisticated menu of treatments developed and sold by companies like Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical-technology.com/data-insights/…, Novartis novartis.com/us-en/sites/no…, and Pfizer. pfizer.com/products/produ… 3/x
Read 6 tweets
Nov 7
Everyone who endorses the false claim that the US economy of 2024 is an inflation-wracked hellscape of misery for working people ...

is doing advance comms work for the Trump administration when in 90 days time they start taking credit for the best economy since the 1960s.
On CNN (to the disgust of Tucker Carlson's website)
dailycaller.com/2024/07/24/dav…
Read 6 tweets
Nov 5
Pro-Trump political violence in 2021 was not spontaneous. It was incited by a serving president. The president also refused to protect the intended targets of violence. The violence of 2021 did not erupt bottom-up. It was organized top-down. 1/x
Those conditions do not prevail this time. Trump is out of office, any incitement will be - and will obviously appear as - blatantly an act of rebellion. The serving president will enforce the law with necessary force. 2/x
Individuals can run their mouths and lose their tempers. The United States is a big country with a lot of guns. But what made 2021 so dangerous was the complicity of the head of government. Minus that ... 3/x
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(