I agree with the Washington pretense, I feel he would be hardest on the case where the most responsibility is due. I do feel that he would be strong on prosecuting for 9/11. But he would have no problem making some moves to encourage the Saudis to crack down on al qaeda and jihadist groups within their own country. I also do feel that he wouldn’t be shooting for a prolonged occupation of Iraq, either.
The United States spoke positively about Iraq initially, with the reason being that Saddam was secular and more tolerant of nonchristian religions and an enemy of the Iranian regime, the very ones who revolted, and turned into a fundamentalist extremist regime. When the confirmations came through that Saddam was attacking other nations besides Iran neighboring him, and was pretty much performing mass killings of Kurds and others, and was a brutal dictator, opinion rapidly changed about him.
I agree very well that the extremists won’t leave us alone, it’s like thinking that the Nazis would simply have left the U.S. alone if we did nothing in the Atlantic or Europe, the demonstratable power makes the U.S. a target for power hungry ideologies, because they know that the number one challenge to them staying powerful as an empire is the risk of getting the United States ticked off.
Correction: I meant NonMuslim religions in the second paragraph.
Very well stated. I completely agree.
I certainly wish the world were like Rand and his father imagine. It clearly is not.
Even Jefferson constituted the marines to attack the Muslim pirate base when this nation was relatively unknown.
In the 21st world, America has a a massive target on its back and any idea of ignoring violent extremist movements is a fools errand. We don’t have to take over every corner of the world as Paul straw mans but we must be continually engaged at undermining these groups with all of our means covert, economic, collaboration, reconnaissance and yes military.
No empire in human history has been better positioned to pull this off than America. It can be done. The Nazis lost, the Japanese lost, the Korean radical tied us. America is strong enough to defeat her enemies but the public must not be deceived about how we are “losing” when we are not.