Nearly two centuries ago, John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth president, was wrestling with domestic demands for intervention in the Greek war for independence when he famously said that the US “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” But what if forbearance in a civil war like Syria’s allows a terrorist group like the Islamic State to establish a safe haven?
这些都是合理的原则，但阈值在哪里？这不是一个新问题。近两个世纪前，美国第六任总统亚当斯与国内要求干预希腊独立战争的观点进行了角力，他说出了一番著名的话，美国“不主动出国寻找恶魔杀死它。”但如果像叙利亚内战这样的情况，克制导致伊斯兰国这样的恐怖集团能够建立安全港，又应该怎么样？