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Posted on 03/14/2026 6:39:42 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
For around 15 years, many American leaders — including all three presidents in that period — believed that the country was too deeply entangled in trying to reorder the societies of the Middle East. They felt the more pressing challenges included rebuilding America’s industrial base and confronting the rise of China. Yet here America is, once again, fighting a war to reorder a society in the greater Middle East. And like in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, this war seems unlikely to turn out quite as its proponents may hope.
Why does this keep happening?
To understand the present, look at the past — at the only country in modern history whose global reach matched that of the United States. Britain at the turn of the 20th century was the world’s sole superpower. The British Empire’s share of global gross domestic product in 1870 was roughly 25 percent — about the same as the United States’ today — and London was the world’s financial capital. Britain had thwarted Napoleon’s bid to rule the European continent and Russia’s effort to expand more into Southeastern Europe during the Crimean War. It presided over a vast empire and set the agenda for international life, much as Washington does today.
Over the course of those decades, roughly from the 1880s through the 1920s, Britain found itself responding to instability, nasty regimes and power vacuums all over Asia and Africa. It sent troops and asserted control in places like Sudan and Somalia, Iraq and Jordan. These missions all seemed compelling at the time but had the effect of keeping London distracted by an endless series of local crises in peripheral parts of the world, often at great cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Boy if had a dollar for every time Farheed was wrong If be as rich as AOC
Why do you keep posting this crap?
We should be getting out of Iran now.
Otherwise, this will end up like Vietnam or Iraq.
We'll start by sending in a bunch of Green Berets. Or Marines. You know the drill.
TDS consumed him. Or, exposed him, I suppose.
It’s important to know the arguments the other side is making.
Let’s see: at the beginning of the 20th Century:
Sudan was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO ENGLAND!” in the streets.
Somalia was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO ENGLAND!” in the streets.
Iraq was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO ENGLAND!” in the streets.
Jordan was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO ENGLAND!” in the streets.
The author is a raging idiot. I know this, having read his works in the past, and his political proclivities.
Thanks for making that point.
“Consider the source” may be an example of the genetic fallacy. However, with Wikipedia excusing the argument from authority fallacy, maybe anything goes.
While all the informal fallacies have their appeal, they remain fallacies.
In principle, I should take the time to read the WaPo, NYTs and other dubious sources, and consider their arguments (probably rejecting them but learning on the way). Life is too short.
False.
We are not “reordering a society”.
We are sending a certain murderous leadership militarily back to the Stone Age.
There are three types of Iranian Supreme Leaders: dead, soon to be dead, and reasonable.
I disagree with your post.
I should have added:
Vietnam was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO AMERICA!” in the streets.
And thanks to the Israelis in their 1981 raid on the the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981, Iraq was not on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon as its government said it would wipe England off the face of the Earth, and it people were not chanting “DEATH TO ENGLAND!” in the streets.
I have to disagree with you completely. This is not Vietnam. This is not Iraq. This is a country that tells us often that it is going to wipe us and Israel off the face of the Earth, and has consistently had its citizens chanting “DEATH TO AMERICA”.
It is foolish to think that is just rhetoric. In my life, I have concluded that dismissing evil people who threaten violence as simply rhetorical is setting yourself up to have violence inflicted on you.
Their intent is to bring about the end of the world and the return of the Mahdi.
Not like Vietnam.
Not like Iraq.
Not even like North Korea.
We can disrupt their nuclear program and we'll just come back and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Fareed Zakaria is a known plagiarizer. Had he been a conservative, he’d be working at a McDonald’s right now.
Nevertheless, it is very difficult for even a great president (like Trump) to avoid subtle mission creep. Vance seems to be a moderating force here. So I’m not concerned, yet.
In the 1940s, the US military did what it needed to do, backed by Democratic and Republican politicians.
Iran having a nuclear weapon cannot “wipe the United States off the face of the Earth”.
Attacking the United States with a nuclear weapon COULD wipe Iran off the face of the Earth.
I don't know how this war will turn out. I have no confidence in the DS infested U.S. Intelligence Community.
That said, this time, unlike in Vietnam and Iraq, we have a CIC who is not Deep State and who has vowed not to fight endless wars.
No, this is not destined to "end up like Vietnam or Iraq". It's TBD.
Most American mothers and fathers do what they need to do.
They deal with whatever life throws at them.
My mother’s parents came to America. I don’t think they planned to as children. Her father worked in a foundry. Within a few years, he had enough money to own a small grocery store. In the 1930s, small grocery stores became uneconomic. Her father and at least one son went into selling rubber soles and heels.
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minor R went big in 2020-22 with his China Virus reporting Every Day.
Then he went all in for Ukraine, tag teaming with that UMC chick.
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