The Roman general Sulla succinctly captured the formula for success in international affairs with the phrase, "No better friend, no worse enemy."
Statesmen, however, are often tempted to take their allies for granted and lavish attention and favors on their adversaries.
That’s a formula for having fewer reliable friends and more emboldened enemies.
Such calculations are being made around the world at the moment in the context of Syria.
Will America throw in with Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ever-more-virulently hostile regime in Turkey — and abandon the Kurds who have done the brunt of the fighting there for our interests against assorted Shariah-supremacists, including the Islamic State and Iran?
The world will be a far more dangerous place if obvious adversaries — especially China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan and Turkey — get preferential treatment and America’s proven friends conclude they’re on the wrong side.
Frank Gaffney, Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a columnist for The Washington Times, and host of the nationally syndicated program, Secure Freedom Radio. Read more reports from Frank Gaffney, Jr. — Click Here Now.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.