Friends and enemies of the liberal order

Bombing democracy in order to save it

A theme of Greek myth is that those condemned by the gods to face disaster do everything possible to avoid their fate – and their very actions only ensure that it happens. Oedipus, warned that he will kill his father and marry his mother, escapes from Corinth for Thebes where he kills a man about 20 years older than him and weds a middle-aged woman. Which must have seemed rather foolish in retrospect - how he must have kicked himself.