Friedman: Occupy Syria

Well, Tom Friedman's plan for invading Iraq and starting a inspiring democracy there worked out so well, why not listen to him on Syria?  In his column today, he notes the Iraq disaster (without admitting he was wrong about it for years) and then takes up Syria, admitting the U.S. needs to step lightly there (after quoting an "Arab friend," though not a taxi driver), before concluding with this:

I believe if you want to end the Syrian civil war and tilt Syria onto a democratic path, you need an international force to occupy the entire country, secure the borders, disarm all the militias and midwife a transition to democracy. It would be staggeringly costly and take a long time, with the outcome still not guaranteed. But without a homegrown Syrian leader who can be a healer, not a divider, for all its communities, my view is that anything short of an external force that rebuilds Syria from the bottom up will fail.