NYT's Thomas Friedman Calls for Arming ISIS

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

20 March 15

ne of the real conundrums about the violence in the Middle East runs like this: ISIS is a very bad bunch. Syria is run by Assad, who also is very bad. ISIS is opposed to Iran, and vice versa, and Iran, in the stalactite-thick caverns of Tom Cotton's mind, is Nazi Germany with head scarves instead of armbands.What is a superpower to do when the enemy of my enemy is also, well, my enemy?

Let's ask Tom Friedman of The New York Times. First, though, let me lay in some canned goods and see if the short-wave in the root cellars is still working.

O.K., so we learn to live with Iran on the edge of a bomb, but shouldn't we at least bomb the Islamic State to smithereens and help destroy this head-chopping menace? Now I despise ISIS as much as anyone, but let me just toss out a different question: Should we be arming ISIS?

Good god.

Or let me ask that differently: Why are we, for the third time since 9/11, fighting a war on behalf of Iran?

Oh, really? Well, I just happen to have Tom Friedman right here.

What say we come back inside the box for a while?