Posted on 09/10/2013 7:21:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Decisions about what action the United States should take against Syria will decisively affect Syria and much of the Middle East. The biggest impact, however, may be felt inside the US.
The negative reaction in Congress and among the American people to President Obama’s proposal of military intervention has been sharp. U.S. receptiveness to Russia’s proposal to sequester Syria’s chemical weapons shows how eager Washington is to avoid a military response.
Neither this turn nor the potential “no” vote in Congress would represent a full rejection of Obama’s plan. It would, however, be something extraordinary — even historic. It would suggest that a substantial percentage of Americans believe that a proposed war is a bad idea. In the context of American history, this is almost unthinkable.
War is woven into the fabric of American life, and Americans usually embrace it. A century ago, this was because many considered war an exuberant, cleansing, manly endeavor. Theodore Roosevelt, who famously declared that he would “welcome almost any war,” exemplified this view. “All the great masterful races have been fighting races,” Roosevelt declared, “and the minute that a race loses the hard fighting virtues, then, no matter what else it may retain, no matter how skilled in commerce and finance, in science or art, it has lost its proud right to stand as the equal of the best.”
Advances in the technology of destruction and killing made it difficult to sustain belief in war’s beauty or nobility. The idea of manifest destiny gave way to something more sophisticated called liberal internationalism, corporate globalism or, in Henry Cabot Lodge’s formulation, “the large policy.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at america.aljazeera.com ...
Kinzer has written several non-fiction books about Turkey, Central America, Iran, the US overthrow of foreign governments from the late 19th century to the present and, most recently, about Rwanda's recovery from genocide.
He has spoken out widely against a potential U.S. attack on Iran, warning that it would destroy the pro-US sentiment that has become widespread among the Iranian populace under the repressive Islamic regime. He is also a fierce opponent of US foreign policy toward Latin America.
Americans usually elect leaders.
I think this biggest factor in our refusal to embrace war is the regime proposing it. This “no” shows how much we trust 0.
And don’t want a community organizer to play bigshot wargames with ‘his military’.
I don’t think that we as Americans embrace war so much as we accept it when the cause is right. IMHO
Americans don’t embrace war, they resolve to do the right thing when necessary. Muslims embrace war, nay they revel in the carnage and bloodshed.
There are consequences when one lied about Benghazi.
Wrong Steven.
We embrace it when someone mucks with us.
“Americans Usually Embrace War”
Not when the president keeps jumping in on the side of people who want to kill us.
Imagine FDR going to war on the side of the Japs on Dec. 8, 1941.
That’s what Clinton did in Serbia.
That’s what Obama did in Libya and Egypt.
That’s what Obama wants to do in Syria.
The author, Kinzer, is full of crap. That’s a leftist interpretation of the American character....which, as usual, is negative. The facts are Americans had to be dragged into both world wars and only the latter because Germany and Japan declared war on us first.
That’s because be have a Muslim-Soviet-loving asshat in charge. Shall we say “red diaper doper baby?
"Citizens concerned about foreign affairs must read this book. Stephen Kinzer's crisp and thoughtful Overthrow undermines the myth of national innocence. Quite the contrary: history shows the United States as an interventionist busybody directed at regime change. We deposed fourteen foreign governments in hardly more than a century, some for good reasons, more for bad reasons, with most dubious long-term consequences."
--Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
"Stephen Kinzer has a grim message for those critics of the Iraqi war who believe George W. Bush to be America's most misguided, uninformed, and reckless president. Bush has had plenty of company in the past century--presidents who believe that America, as Kinzer tells us, has the right to wage war wherever it deems war necessary."
--Seymour M. Hersh
"Stephen Kinzer's book is a jewel. After reading Overthrow, no American -- not even President Bush -- should any longer wonder 'why they hate us.' Overthrow is a narrative of all the times we've overthrown a foreign government in order to put in power puppets that are obedient to us. It is a tale of imperialism American-style, usually in the service of corporate interests, and as Kinzer points out, 'No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from its own shores.' "
--Chalmers Johnson
Americans haven’t stopped supporting war, they’ve just become apathetic as to the reasons why politicians want to send their soldiers off to die.
This is usually just before a country balkanizes.
It was something the _resident counted on..particularly from republicans, he said as much.
We were supposed to go a,ongoing with this because, in the libs twisted minds, we like war. War for wars sake.
What a bunch of twisted jerks.
>> mI think this biggest factor in our refusal to embrace war is the regime proposing it.
That’s definitely part of it — but it’s only part of it (for me anyway).
I’m generally all in for kicking Islamonazi butt.
But Syria, right now, is like the “perfect storm” of counterexample:
*** Wrong opponent
*** Wrong goals
*** Wrong assumptions
*** Wrong benefit to risk ratio
*** Wrong blowback likelihood
and, especially, as you point out:
*** WRONG LEADERSHIP
It was a gut sense with me that going into Syria is wrong, and it’s being validated with every passing day. What is the purpose, who are we supporting, what are the potential consequences? I see no clear thinking on any of this. No. It’s a very bad idea. Smack him down hard if Obama tries to invoke war powers, imho. There are no good actors in this fight that I can see.
The latter, I believe, was due to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
Most US citizens were against intervention.
We don’t want to follow this leader in a BS war. Even his base refuses.
Three more long years of Obama’s bull shit ..........
No.
Americans usually embrace just and sensible wars.
I’m with you on this one ... gut feeling. Unless we are in the ME to help protect Israel, we should just keep our noses out of there (and bring our troops home).
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