Posted on 08/09/2016 9:27:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Isolationists must not prevail in this new debate over foreign policy," warns Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The consequences of a lasting American retreat from the world would be dire."
To make his case against the "Isolationist Temptation," Haass creates a caricature, a cartoon, of America First patriots, then thunders that we cannot become "a giant gated community."
Understandably, Haass is upset. For the CFR has lost the country.
Why? It colluded in the blunders that have bled and near bankrupted America and that cost this country its unrivaled global preeminence at the end of the Cold War.
No, it was not "isolationists" who failed America. None came near to power. The guilty parties are the CFR crowd and their neocon collaborators, and liberal interventionists who set off to play empire after the Cold War and create a New World Order with themselves as Masters of the Universe.
Consider just a few of the decisions taken in those years that most Americans wish we could take back.
After the Soviet Union withdrew the Red Army from Europe and split into 15 nations, and Russia held out its hand to us, we slapped it away and rolled NATO right up onto her front porch.
Enraged Russians turned to a man who would restore respect for their country. Did we think they would just sit there and take it?
How did bringing Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia into NATO make America stronger, safer and more secure? For it has surely moved us closer to a military clash with a nuclear power.
In 2014, with John McCain and U.S. diplomats cheering them on, mobs in Independence Square overthrew a pro-Russian government in Kiev that had been democratically elected and installed a pro-NATO regime.
Putin's response: Secure Russia's naval base at Sevastopol by retaking Crimea, and support pro-Russian Ukrainians in Luhansk and Donetsk who preferred secession to submission to U.S. puppets.
Fortunately, our interventionists failed to bring Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. Had they succeeded, we almost surely would have been in a shooting war with Russia by now.
Would that have made us stronger, safer, more secure?
After the attack on 9/11, George W. Bush, with the nation and world behind him, took us into Afghanistan to eradicate the nest of al-Qaida killers.
After having annihilated some and scattered the rest, however, Bush decided to stick around and convert this wild land of Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks into another Iowa.
Fifteen years later, we are still there.
And the day we leave, the Taliban will return, undo all we have done, and butcher those who cooperated with the Americans.
If we had to do it over, would we have sent a U.S. army and civilian corps to make Afghanistan look more like us?
Bush then invaded Iraq, overthrew Saddam, purged the Baath Party, and disbanded the Iraqi army. Result: A ruined, sundered nation with a pro-Iranian regime in Baghdad, ISIS occupying Mosul, Kurds seceding, and endless U.S. involvement in this second-longest of American wars.
Most Americans now believe Iraq was a bloody trillion-dollar mistake, the consequences of which will be with us for decades.
With a rebel uprising against Syria's Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. aided the rebels. Now, 400,000 Syrians are dead, half the country is uprooted, millions are in exile, and the Damascus regime, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, is holding on after five years.
Meanwhile, we cannot even decide whether we want Assad to survive or fall, since we do not know who rises when he falls.
Anyone still think it was a good idea to plunge into Syria in support of the rebels? Anyone still think it was a good idea to back Saudi Arabia in its war against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has decimated that country and threatens the survival of millions?
Anyone still think it was a good idea to attack Libya and take down Moammar Gadhafi, now that ISIS and other Islamists and rival regimes are fighting over the carcass of that tormented land?
"The Middle East is arguably the most salient example of what happens when the U.S. pulls back," writes Haass.
To the CFR, the problem is not that we plunged headlong into this maelstrom of tyranny, tribalism and terrorism, but that we have tried to extricate ourselves.
Hints that America might leave the Middle East, says Haass, have "contributed greatly to instability in the region."
So, must we stay indefinitely?
To the CFR, America's role in the world is to corral Russia, defend Europe, contain China, isolate Iran, deter North Korea, and battle al-Qaida and ISIS wherever they may be, bleeding our country's military.
Nor is that all. We are also to convert Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan into pro-Western preferably democratic countries, and embrace "free trade," accepting the imported merchandise of all mankind, even if that means endless $800 billion trade deficits, bleeding our country's economy.
Otherwise, you are just an isolationist.
That is an excellent question.
I should have copied the whole thing. Anyway, you can click on it.
The article makes me think Pat is admiring Hitler and believes America should not have bothered him.
There is also a bit of trivia. Which of the major candidates called Pat a Hitler loving wacko? I give you a hint. Candidate’s name starts with T and ends with UMP.
The article states that Hilter would have destroyed Western Civilization. All the rest of Pat’s points are pretty well known to anyone who studied the period in detail.
Washington was far too intelligent to make an utterly absurd comment such as this.
1n 1793, we were barely a nation, having ratified the Constitution but 4 years earlier, and Europe was only dimly aware of our existence.
You’re one of these alt-right persons who release themselves to japanese cartoon girlss lifting their skirts?
So you’re denying history, then? He actually said this. I will safely take his word over yours, with all due respect.
Saddam was a sunni. He was anti-Israel from the start. He was firing missiles into Israel before we were in there and during. That was why the discovery of left behind middle range missiles and the correct caps to carry gas were right next to them in a few locations. And believe me, the public is not being told all the truth about discovered weapons in Iraq, or the middle east period.
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The Iraq invasion was justified based upon Saddam’s missile attacks on Israel, our only real ally in the middle east, before and during the gulf war. That and his consistent contact and support with Bin Laden and his gas attacks on the kurds in the north supplied by the US and Germany.
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>You’re one of these alt-right persons who release themselves to japanese cartoon girlss lifting their skirts?
What the heck?
So you were there that day????Hm.....................
What kind of a reply is that? How old are you?
On the mark. Kristol and Podhoretz are the spawn of NYC “intellectuals” who were ardent devotees of the Bolshevik Radical, Trotsky.
Olog, ok, he said it.
Now ask yourself quietly.
Does it make any sense?
I don’t have to ask myself, quietly or otherwise. It makes perfect sense. Unlike liberals like yourself, I don’t question the sanity of the Founding Fathers.
Being ready for war at all times does not mean being perpetually embroiled in wars or seeking to start wars with non-belligerents. It also does not mean maintaining a standing army, i.e. opposed to a militia of the type that Richard Henry Lee envisioned, which is comprised of all of the people.
Olog, likely you’re a well intentioned lad and I wasn’t baiting you; merely suggesting you reflect a moment on Washington’s words. Nothing more.
I’m neither a lefty nor questioning the sanity of our Founders, who though great men, were hardly infallible.
Jefferson asserted in the Declaration that ‘All Men are Created Equal” a nostrum well beyond ridiculous.
Plato, a much greater mind, identified the “Soul” as the attribute that makes each of us unique from birth; the astonishing miracle of creation!
And that was some 400 years before Christ and more than 2000+ years before Jefferson.
You do not appear to belong here. Why did you register here?
Jefferson asserted in the Declaration that “All Men are Created Equal” a nostrum well beyond ridiculous
As expected, you insist on defending an absurdity and in the process reveal yourself as closed minded and intolerant, hostile to any dissent while insisting you know best. Why of course you do.
The power of Creation is hardly manifested in the physical sameness of Man but rather in his divergent attitudes, behaviors, impulses and sentiments; the very essence of the Soul; which imprints each of us w/our uniqueness. We are NOT created equal and never were!!! Post-creation? Hm...........Are you referring to the
teenage years?
A cardinal Principle of Conservatism is that we moderns, although preening w/conceit and hubris, are insignificant dwarves standing of the massive shoulders of the giants of Antiquity, who created Western Civilization. We see as far as we do, only because of their genius; Plato being one of them.
Since my posts enrage you, suggest you ignore them. Also suggest you avoid any discussion that involves an exchange of ideas, requiring reflection and thought.
Political blather might be a good fit!
Are you trying to come up with an opus on this thread? Please don’t make it tl;dr.
But the nation building afterwards, needed to be done mostly on their dime, and needed to change their culture.
Our weak minded attempts to impose democracy on their culture has lead to years of wars, ISIS, subrogation of women’s rights, a lack of religious rights, betrayal, debts and failure.
You need to do a lot more thinking -- and clearer thinking -- before you get us into another war.
A lot of our troubles came from thinking war was necessary and lacking a plan or the will for what to do afterwards.
So we look for excuses -- too much nation building, not enough nation building, too much of an effort to transform the country, not enough effort, too much democracy, or not enough.
Never agreed w/this bellicose comment from Washington, asserting:
“There is a rank due the United States among Nations...
.....reputation of weakness.....avoid insult.....secure peace.....rising prosperity.....ready for war.” What?
This was uttered, when we were but 4 years old, effectively unknown to the world; barely having a functioning postal system much less a military.
A much greater man, James Madison, saw war for what it always was (in paraphrase):
“ War is the mortal enemy of liberty and the spawn of debt and taxes, the instruments for concentrating power within the State among those who would exercise that power ruthlessly to insure their survival at any cost.”
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