No President Can 'Shape' Mideast Events

Remember, in 2005, it wasn’t only conservatives throwing rose petals at George W. Bush. It was everyone who fell for the lazy logic of post hoc ergo propter hoc and the largely unspoken assumption that big change in the Middle East must come from the White House. Similarly, criticism of Obama isn’t only from conservatives. It’s from everyone who assumes Obama could have done something to guide the Arab Spring to a happier conclusion, without ever specifying what exactly that “something” is. Romney is explicit about this. The United States has been left at “the mercy of events” thanks to Barack Obama, he said in a speech Sunday. The president must “shape events.” One would think the last decade of American experience in the Middle East would have tempered that hubris, but it seems some people still think the world is a Risk board on a coffee table in the Oval Office.