Ike would have handled Qaddafi differently

Eisenhower was no isolationist—James Reston noted in the New York Times that in his first inaugural, 41 of the 48 paragraphs were devoted to foreign affairs. But he knew how to read the lay of the land the needs of the moment, and he could not see why America, despite the pleas of his old comrades in arms in Britain and France, should join them, and spend its blood or treasure, in an attempted invasion of Egypt. In his memoir, he wrote: “I believed that it would be undesirable and impracticable for the British to retain sizable forces permanently in the territory of a jealous and resentful government amid an openly hostile population.”

Eisenhower’s actions in 1956 have never received the attention they deserve. In America, applause for the moderate will be moderate, approval for the restrained will be restrained. But Ike was at his greatest when he wasn’t waging war…

Visiting Afghanistan last month, I saw the flood of money, the gushing pipeline of dollars, we are spending to win the love and support, and foster the peaceableness, of the people of Afghanistan. I was told of and saw pictures of the newly opened health-care centers and schools. I’d think: “This is very nice, very kind, but Camden, N.J., could use a clinic. Camden could use a new school.” We have such budget problems, a brutalizing tax system, an incoherent American culture. Don’t these things need our attention?