Tom Friedman always with the fresh, and totally not silly, ideas—from the 80s. “If I were Biden and I were looking for a new frontier in the Middle East to take on, I would be working on bringing Syria back to the Arab fold. I think Syria is still the keystone to the region.”

Joking aside, these stale platitudes are not only foolish, but also dangerous. Not one premise here is correct. And it’s not just in theory. It’s based on a long track record in practice. It shows not just total misunderstanding of Syria and the ME, but also no historical memory. https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay/status/1343666554265886720

The reason they’re potentially destructive is not only because they amplify Assad shills and pro-Iran operatives. It’s also because the UAE misguidedly was pushing for the same policy (only their priority wasn’t Iran, but Turkey). The Trump admin wisely nipped it in the bud. https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay/status/1343670894410031105

Beyond that, from a historical perspective, not a single premise behind Friedman’s words is accurate. Be it the “keystone” nonsense or the “Arab fold” gibberish or the “prying from Iran” idiocy. What’s worse, none of it is remotely novel. Me in 2010: https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay/status/1343674300944048131

Calling Syria “the keystone” of the ME is to rehash complete, and totally stale, nonsense of the Peace Processors and their disastrous and destructive enterprise. It’s also to be clueless about the Middle East across the ages. Me in 2013: https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay/status/1343676099520294912

Syria, like Lebanon, the Palestinians, and the Levant in general, is a theater. Nothing more. That’s the lesson of the strategic geography of the region: https://www.hoover.org/research/strategic-geography-middle-east https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay/status/1343678359155437568