Quote:
Originally Posted by bblhead672
Scooter: A few years ago I would have strongly disagreed with your take on American history. My blinders came off (somewhat painfully) and I gained the insight to see that the picture is not always as you imagined it was painted.
Rhetoric is great coming from politicians who merely have to confuse the masses enough to get their votes. Not so great when the rhetoric is peeled back to reveal truth.
The last few years I get strange looks when I say I can't blame the Muslims for hating the "Great Satan" as our society tolerates, promotes and celebrates many things that their religion abhors. That acknowledgement though doesn't imply that the radical Islamists methods are in any way acceptable to me or to a (somewhat) civil and modern world.
Some days I feel our country would be a better place if we kept our noses out of other people's business.
Thanks for your insightful and though provoking post.
|
I am firmly of the belief that relations between countries are driven by self interest, and always have been. While I don't think our actions have been "good", I don't think they have been "evil" either. As for our foreign policy since the end of the Cold War, I don't think it has been "wrong". I just think it has been "dumb". We have done nothing to further our nation's core interests and have floundered around from one failed policy to the next without any real thought to what we were really doing, and why. I am not an isolationist, but I do question a large percent of our current military commitments and believe that many of them are not serving to make the US safer, prosperous, or more influential. Our efforts to spread market democracy in the Middle East have been catastrophically self defeating, and we should leave entirely. We are less safe, not more so. We do not need the oil at this point and can never kill an idea (fundamentalist Islam). We will never run out of people to hit with hellfires from drones. We have made the world more dangerous and ushered in endless human tragedy, with nothing to show for it other than multiplying enemies and a rash of failed states. Our policy needs a radical overhaul in many ways. The current approach is not working.