The Broken Country Effect

The "broken window effect," in policing, is the idea that failure to enforce minor crimes emboldens more serious criminals

Robert Tracinski reminds us.

I have argued for the "broken country effect": failure to oppose rogue authoritarian regimes that start out as minor annoyances--such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela [and Syria]--leads to much worse consequences later.

The consequence of the US failure to back Venezuela's political opposition in 2002, when they briefly ousted strongman Hugo Chavez, is causing no end of trouble across Central and South America, from Chavez's support for leftist rebels in Columbia--to the threat of a new Sandinista coup in Nicaragua, which our diplomats are now scrambling to prevent.

Read also Frank J Gaffney's
War for the free world