Defining Policy Failure

It can be pretty hard to tell when a particular policy was the wrong one without knowing what other policies were realistically available. About the most we can say is that a policy is wrong when it fails to achieve its objectives, which doesn't say very much about what a better policy would have been. We don't know exactly how the world would look if Saddam Hussein were still in power in Iraq, nor do we know know if the Gadhafi regime would be in power today in a peaceful Libya had the United States not joined Britain and France in providing air cover for Benghazi. What we do know has been pithily expressed by Tony Blair: "We've tried intervention and putting down troops in Iraq. We've tried intervention without putting in troops in Libya. And we've tried no intervention at all but demanding regime change in Syria."...