You are asking the wrong questions and thus coming up with

the wrong solutions. This is standard operating procedure for right wing think tanks like the one of which you are a member.

A better question is: If so many people and countries all around the world are upset with us, what are we doing wrong?

Once you have exhausted the intellectual exercise of answering that question and figuring out what non military things we can do to change that, then you will be coming at this the right way.

by Steven Leser (193 articles, 37 quicklinks, 32 diaries, 1298 comments) on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 7:57:29 AM
 

The Problem is that Right Wing Policy is the cause

Bush, support for transnational corporations over US industry, failure to realize that Globalism without prophylaxis is deadly-- these are right wing (including Clinton DLC) policies that are killing America. Then, we have Walmart-- handing our economy to the Chinese, with mostly right wing customers buying the goods.

And let's not forget, John, your and my favorite idiot Secretary of State-- Condi the incompetent- failing to do just about anything, except make things worse.

Did I miss something or does Bush not have a foreign policy, outside of talking about "evildoers" and fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran?

Let's face it, the right wing has to oversimplify so much to pander to its prime base of religious nuts, inadequate hypertestosterone males and cheap rich people who want to avoid taxes- that it is impossible to develop nuanced, intelligent policies.

There is no room any more for old fashioned, Goldwater type conservatives like I think you are.  

by Rob Kall (759 articles, 3845 quicklinks, 320 diaries, 1639 comments) on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 7:59:25 AM
 

Hostile People Live in a Hostile Universe

When an individual's (or country's) essential perspective is that he lives in a hostile world, where enemies lurk everywhere and everyone is out to get him, then he is creating the very conditions of mistrust and hostility that he worries about. His actions will disturb and threaten everyone else and lead to more tension and conflict. This is the situation America has put itself in, becoming the Paranoid States of America.

by Mac McKinney (42 articles, 62 quicklinks, 144 diaries, 980 comments) on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 8:15:37 AM
 

War By Every Possible Means

Mr. Carey reflects the opinion of a large and powerful segment of the American spectrum which seriously misreads von Clauswitz's dictum, "War is the armed extension of politics."

Taken at face value, Mr. Carey's position is more similar to another German, Josef Goebbels, who believed that the entire energy of the nation should be mobilized into the service of "Total War."

I reject Mr. Carey's assertion that the rest of the world is ganging up on America.

What I see is an America that is too big for its britches and that is bullying smaller nations and imposing on everyone.

Mr. Carey expresses a shared concern about nuclear proliferation and the Iran's putative ability to deploy a nuclear weapons system.

Yet Mr. Carey is silent on the issue of security for smaller nations without nuclear weapons.

There is no reasonable expectation that nations will not pursue nuclear weapons unless they are convinced that there is a robust international security system that will assure their national integrity.

The GOP politically and the Bush Administration institutionally oppose such a system and have repeatedly articulated their preference for unilateral action unrestrained by any concern for other nation's perceived security interests.

With the world's predominant military power taking such a self-serving and aggressive stance toward international disputes what incentive is there for other nations to restrain their weapons deployment?

With the US taking such a Hobbesian approach to diplomacy, why wouldn't other powers seek the security of coalitions aimed at weakening the US.

Mr. Carey's article serves the useful purpose of explicitly showing how current GOP/conservative thinking increases the probability of conflict and diminishes US security.

Showing restraint in military initiatives is not a sign of weakness.

Agressively preparing to fight people who don't have quarrels with us is not defense.

We have enough enemies.

We should oppose policies that drive more people to oppose us.

by Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 557 comments) on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 9:40:03 AM