Hey world, how’s nonintervention working?

At the town hall gathering Oct. 9 posing as a presidential debate, a moment of coherence on the topic of Syria surfaced. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump quickly passed over it because—clearly—neither leading candidate was there to talk substance.

Clinton reiterated her support for a no-fly zone but quickly undercut it by sending out this banner: “I would not use American ground forces in Syria.” A commander in chief who stipulates the rules for close combat is trying to win political favors, not wars. Clinton said she supports special forces on the ground, “which we’re using,” just not “holding territory” (memo, Madam Secretary: that email you got about special forces on the ground was probably classified, big C).

Trump seemed to side with Assad and the Russians, saying they are “killing ISIS.” False. Most Russian attacks target civilians and rebels. Trump accused Clinton of being in the administration when Obama let pass his “red line” on chemical weapons. Also false. Obama declared a red line in August 2012, Clinton left the State Department in February 2013, and in August 2013 intelligence officers briefed Obama confirming chemical weapons use in an attack that killed 1,400 Syrians. It was perhaps the end of administration credibility in the region when Obama refused to respond, but it did not happen on Clinton’s watch.

Americans remain weary not only of wars but of knowing about conflicts and thinking hard thoughts about what to do.

While this theater of the absurd was taking place, Merriam-Webster noted in a tweet, “more people are looking up ‘lepo-’ (as in, ‘what’s a lepo?’) than ‘Aleppo.’” It’s no comfort to know we have bumbling commanders-in-chief-in-waiting who mirror the American public’s lack of interest in global affairs.

President Barack Obama came into office in 2008 pledging to end the “dumb war” in Iraq, and most Americans agreed. The problem, as they say, is someone forgot to turn the lights off when we left the Middle East. It’s a bipartisan problem. When I wrote a few weeks ago about what the United States could do to end the catastrophe in Syria, reader responses followed the isolationist bent Obama has practiced (erratically) for two terms. Americans remain weary not only of wars but of knowing about conflicts and thinking hard thoughts about what to do.

The trouble is, nonintervention isn’t going so well, for us or for the world. Islamic jihadism has spread alarmingly on Obama’s watch, plus conflicts sputter from the Pacific to the Black Sea. It’s possible our next president will face direct threats to American territory in the Pacific or to the NATO alliance itself, not to mention threats to the U.S. mainland.

Clinton in the past has been described as a hawk, but national mood may mean neither she nor Republicans in Congress are inclined to hard choices on foreign policy. Plus, Clinton has shown her decisions are up for sale.

“A rudderless America, in a moment of transition, is heedlessly reacting to events rather than influencing them,” writes Matthew Continetti in National Review.

Clinton, having achieved the highest office in the land, should focus first on halting policy incoherence and foreign policy partisanship, rather than domestic engineering that’s likely to be fractious and damaging.

The other challenge is convincing the rest of us to care, Christians included. The American church is not a gift to the kingdom of God when it embraces isolationism.

Strategically it isn’t good for the global church and global missions when the world overall is less safe. It doesn’t serve the world’s poor—and nearly all of its poorest live outside the United States—when Americans show indifference to their political and physical condition.

And it is no testimony to anyone anywhere not to know the name of a Syrian city under enduring siege. As Clinton and Trump traded quips on Syria, Muslims and Christians in western Aleppo quite literally huddled together (St. Elias Cathedral just took in 4,000 displaced families, half Muslim, half Christian). They are helping one another against the ongoing slaughter, and a world of indifference.

Email mbelz@wng.org