A Doctrine America must never adopt

America cannot have it both ways. She cannot pretend to be the altruistic, great power it had been for a short period of time following the string of victories it scored during the Second World War, and also work to rearrange the world in such a way as to serve its own selfish interests as well as the interests of those who profess to stand with her.

And yet, this is what many writers are advocating nowadays, professing to be American patriots. They pile articles on top of articles in which they list what they say America must do to reengage with the world and lead it to the nirvana of their imagination. One such article came under the title: “Trump's Middle East doctrine” and the subtitle: “A key objective is the isolation of Iran,” written by James A. Lyons, and published on June 13, 2017 in The Washington Times.

Lyons begins by asserting that President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia has “signaled to all the Muslim leaders that the United States as the 'strong horse' is back.” This is reference to a legend according to which Bin Laden was reported to have said that Muslims respect the strong horse over the weak horse. Lyons goes on to say that in the minds of those leaders, Mr. Trump will keep his word because he has shown to be a man of action … meaning he has shown to be a strong horse.

Captivated by these notions, James Lyons develops the courage to spell out what he believes the Trump Middle East doctrine looks like or ought to look like. He says it consists of defeating all the terror organizations in the world, including the Islamic State … also known as ISIS. In addition, he sees America work to isolate Iran, which he characterizes as being the world leader in state-sponsored terrorism.

But the devil being in the details – to paraphrase an old saying – it is where the James Lyons argument starts to disintegrates. It is that to expand on the Trump doctrine, he lists eight activities which he calls “our core vital interests” as being the goals that need to be fulfilled. The trouble is that they will raise the eyebrows of those who want America to be the altruistic power she has been during the post-war era.

These people want to see an America that will be feared and respected at the same time, not an America that may be feared but also challenged by the big powers such as China and Russia, and harassed by the smaller ones such as Iran and North Korea. These nations will most certainly push back against the idea of an America that's implementing its core interests at their expense.

Furthermore, having mentioned that the Trump doctrine promises to go after Iran because of its terrorist activities, James Lyons then promises that America will “ensure the survival of Israel.” He says so at the same time as he urges the Muslims to adopt a policy of “sovereign responsibility,” which means they must rely on the self. That's one sauce for the goose and another one for the gander.

It is a double standard that doesn't even stop here. It gets worse and here is how: to call Iran a sponsor of terrorism, and not call out Israel when the whole world views this thing as being the only terrorist entity on the planet, is so upside-down, it destroys the writer's argument as well as his credibility.

And there is more of what should worry everyone. It is that James Lyons counsels two other courses of action which are as repugnant as they are dangerous. He advocates “removing the Iranian theocracy from power,” and he advocates “establishing a sovereign Kurdistan.” Well, it is obvious that this man is out of touch with the set of values upon which human morality stands.

What James Lyons misses is that having seen what happened in Iraq and Libya, the world has come to abhor regime change. And having seen what happened to Palestine, the world has come to abhor creating a clone of Israel. In fact, the world has concluded that change imposed from the outside, always leads to calamities that get out of hand. It wants to see none of that ever again.

The Arabs and the Muslims know that as well. Thus, Lyons is deluding himself if he believes that America will be able to maintain a coalition of Arab or Muslim countries while implementing an agenda they know will lead to unmitigated disasters affecting them and their descendants for generations to come.