This article implies we don’t belong in the middle east and the writer is sadly mistaken. Power abhors a vacuum. If we abandon our allies over there, they will find new allies. I promise you, we won’t like their new friends (Russia and China). I agree we don’t stick our nose in every business, but we do need to get involved when our national security interests are at stake. We are in a new type of war since 9/11. Really, since the fall of the Shah of Iran. This is assymetrical warfare and most times will not involve large armies and big campaigns. If we don’t do this work, there will be many more 9/11’s.
It has also fallen to us (mostly) to keep the world’s waterways open and free to commerce. Most of our international trade is by ship. Would we rather go back to the days of our founders and just pay off rogue states to allow us to conduct trade near their waterways (Barbary Pirates)? For many years, this job was mostly tackled by the UK. After WWII it fell to us. Do we abandon this role? Get ready to pay a lot higher prices for those goods as the cost of doing business in the modern world increases with payoffs to jackboot thugs overseas so they don’t attack the worlds shipping.
>> It has also fallen to us (mostly) to keep the world’s waterways open and free to commerce. <<
Absolutely. It’s a very important aspect of our military preparedness.
But in today’s world, here’s what might be a more important reason for a strong U. S. Navy:
To deter a rogue atomic power, like Iran, from using a ship-based missile to launch a nuclear attack on the USA — especially a missile carrying an EMP weapon.
What about the larger point regarding neoconservatism and neoconservatives?