What number is "a number of"? Like, 2?
I never thought it would be "easy" and no one in government ever gave me that impression.
[We are there to begin the changing of the Middle East.] This kind of utopian, delusional, Wilsonian nonsense was utterly repudiated in 1917-18.
You mean, in 1917-18, some people said "we are going to begin changing the Middle East", and it didn't happen, and the way it didn't happen (i.e. some sort of metaphysical laws prevented it) utterly repudiated the very notion of changing the Middle East?
You do get points for using the adjective "Wilsonian", though. Anyone who uses the adjective "Wilsonian" automatically gets an advantage in the argument, or so I understand.
How about a whole bunch of senior officials in the U.S. Department of Defense? And the Vice President of the United States, too?
I never thought it would be "easy" and no one in government ever gave me that impression.
And yet did it ever occur to you to ask yourself why the same Dick Cheney who thought it was a bad idea to invade Iraq with 500,000+ troops in 1991 suddenly decided it was a good idea to invade Iraq with 130,000+ troops in 2003?
You mean, in 1917-18, some people said "we are going to begin changing the Middle East", and it didn't happen, and the way it didn't happen (i.e. some sort of metaphysical laws prevented it) utterly repudiated the very notion of changing the Middle East?
What was repudiated in 1917-18 was the silly notion that we could order the world to our own liking.
You do get points for using the adjective "Wilsonian", though. Anyone who uses the adjective "Wilsonian" automatically gets an advantage in the argument, or so I understand.
"Wilsonian" is synonymous with "silly" and "delusional."
Go back and read the text of his address to Congress calling for a declaration of war against Germany . . . you know, all that "making the world safe for democracy" and "the imperial government of Germany" nonsense. These statements were particularly idiotic in light of the fact that Germany was really no less democratic than any other country in Europe at the time.