It’s time to get tough with Cuba! It’s time to get tough with Russia! It’s time to get tough with China! It’s time to get tough with North Korea! It’s time! It’s high time!
That’s the rap over at the Washington Post editorial page, which is definitely cruisin’ for a bruisin’, and I mean a bruisin’ for someone else! Last week, the Post got tough with the Obama Administration for not, well, for not turning Cuba into a capitalist employers’ paradise in one year. “there is scant evidence so far of a sea change in Cuba,” moans the Post, ignoring the fact that a “half century of hostility” had failed to produce one either. But, surely, the Post feels, “real change” is possible, if only President Obama would demand it.
As you can imagine, the Post also insists that Mr. Obama wave his magic wand over the brutal civil war in Syria and resolve it to the Post’s satisfaction. I’m guessing that the Post is calling for magic, because the editorial, which subjects Secretary of State John Kerry to withering scorn, contains not one word of positive advice, other than, of course, urging the necessity of getting “tough” with Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
It’s also high time for the U.S. to pressure Russia to make peace in Ukraine, although, again, the Post seems fresh out of ideas of what to do if Russian President Putin says “no.” At least, the Post says lamely, then everyone will know that it’s all his fault.
The Post is tougher in the Far East, demanding that the U.S. impose sanctions on Chinese firms trading with North Korea unless China agrees to pressure North Korea to call a halt to its nuclear weapons and missile programs, which, the Post insists, could threaten the U.S. But sanctions have a (very) long history of not working very well, particularly when imposed on a country as large and as influential as China, particularly when they affect issues of great concern to that country. Still, give the Post credit: ineffectual action, if not better than none, is at least different.
