I'm not convinced yet but from my initial readings I think this maybe one of the first times I agree with something Biden has done. Wanted to hear your anti-intervention viewpoint to make sure I see a bigger picture.
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I’ll have to think on this a bit.
I'm not convinced yet but from my initial readings I think this maybe one of the first times I agree with something Biden has done. Wanted to hear your anti-intervention viewpoint to make sure I see a bigger picture.
I disagree with you that the world “needs” one dominate nation, but there is no doubt that’s how the world operates at this point in human development. And that being the case I don’t want to see a tyrannical collectivist oligarchy like China to “be in charge.”What is the US to do when another nation like China has obvious aspirations of world domination? You may not like it but the world needs a dominate nation that another nations can look to for leadership and in times of trouble. It is far better for the world for that nation to be the US rather than China for obvious reasons.
I disagree with you that the world “needs” one dominate nation, but there is no doubt that’s how the world operates at this point in human development. And that being the case I don’t want to see a tyrannical collectivist oligarchy like China to “be in charge.”
I think back to the old John Wayne/Jimmy Stewart movie, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The John Wayne character was the biggest, meanest, baddest ass around, someone even Liberty Valance didn’t mess around with. But he kept to himself and didn’t try and “lead” anybody. I would like to see the US be more like that.
Another glowing example of Bearcat's ability to make the simple even less complex. How I wish I had such skills.Who do poorer countries turn to when they need help from a natural disaster, invasion from another foreign power, economic help, humanitarian crisis, ETC, if there is no dominate country in the world? While I understand you may not see the need for a dominate power in the world the fact of the matter is one is needed for worldwide peace and stability. It is also imperative that world power is one of fairness and strives for good. What other nation out there has the economic power to come to the aid of some of these countries and has the built in restraints to do more good than bad other than the US?
Don’t think every country would agree with that, we’ve done some pretty shitty stuff.Who do poorer countries turn to when they need help from a natural disaster, invasion from another foreign power, economic help, humanitarian crisis, ETC, if there is no dominate country in the world? While I understand you may not see the need for a dominate power in the world the fact of the matter is one is needed for worldwide peace and stability. It is also imperative that world power is one of fairness and strives for good. What other nation out there has the economic power to come to the aid of some of these countries and has the built in restraints to do more good than bad other than the US?
Who do poorer countries turn to when they need help from a natural disaster, invasion from another foreign power, economic help, humanitarian crisis, ETC, if there is no dominate country in the world? While I understand you may not see the need for a dominate power in the world the fact of the matter is one is needed for worldwide peace and stability. It is also imperative that world power is one of fairness and strives for good. What other nation out there has the economic power to come to the aid of some of these countries and has the built in restraints to do more good than bad other than the US?
Another glowing example of Bearcat's ability to make the simple even less complex. How I wish I had such skills.
Keep in mind that I am a kooky radical on issues like you present. I do not see it as a proper duty for a government of one country to extort money from its own citizens in order to bring aid or comfort to citizens of another country. In times of natural disaster or humanitarian crisis it falls upon the consciences of the citizens of a richer country to provide succor. Same holds true for military adventurism. Citizens of a rich country have no moral business in sacrificing the lives or well being of its own young men on behalf of another country. Those young men (or old men for that matter) who feel called upon to participate should do so on their own. Think of Hemingway’s *For Whom the Bell Tolls,* or Maugham’s *The Razor’s Edge.*
Having said that I fully recognize that mine is a kooky radical opinion shared by almost no one else. But I do believe, however, you have fallen victim to a narrative provided by our state apparatus. Much of the US foreign policy is aimed at obtaining and retaining as much power and control of other countries as possible. Our government has no qualms in causing pain to other governments and their citizens if they dare step out of the line the US insists they obey. Striving for fairness and good is way down the bucket list. It is ironic that countries like Australia have chaffed at the “second class status” in which the US has treated them in the past.
I admit and AGREE that China is much worse, and has potential to cause great harm to humanity. But let’s not fall into the error of thinking that US foreign policy is about “doing good, doing the right thing.”
Sure some of our foreign policy is based on what amounts to legal bribery of our politicians by business but what happens if we do what you propose and completely disengage? China comes rolling in and takes over more of the world. I know you have good intentions but like most liberal policies they are naïve.
We are about to find out how it plays out in Afghanistan.Yeah, you may be tight, no one knows how my naive intentions would play out. How could we know? They’ve never been tried. (Well, they were sorta tried the first 100 years of this country, and it went from one of the poorest nations on this planet to the richest, freest country in human history.) But you’re rught, we don’t know what would happen.
But what we DO know is the way it has played out the last hundred years, especially following WW2, when our leaders wanted to become an empire. And we have been involved in military conflict somewhere in the world ever since, including a Cold War with nuclear implications with the USSR, guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, utter chaos in the Middle East, a War on Poverty that is driving us into the very thing the war is supposed to prevent, a drug war that has turned millions of us into users, a trade war with our allies as well as our assumed enemies, and now conflict with over a billion Chinese.
What baffles me is the assumption by so many people that we are doing things right. My idea on how we should behave may be naive, but it isn’t suicidal.