Arab Spring

View 742 Monday, September 17, 2012

The news is that the Middle East is on fire, and Americans aren’t welcome over there. I have been trying to say that the best US policy is the oldest one: we are the friends of liberty everywhere but we are the guardians only of our own; and we need to make ourselves as independent of such volatile areas as we possibly can. In particular it is far better to invest in developing American resources than to fight wars overseas; it is better to invest in developing North American resources than to fight wars overseas. We are a maritime nation and we need a Navy, but we must not be dependent on overseas commerce for survival. Once again, it is better to invest in resources close at hand an under our control than to engage in foreign interventions.

Do not become involved in the territorial disputes of Europe. Or of the ethnic disputes of the rest of the world. I believed that we had no choice but to enforce containment during the Seventy Years War AKA The Cold War; I was in favor of the Viet Nam intervention because I believed that necessary to containment. But we were then faced with an enemy that had an ideological goal of world liberation. And when the USSR folded, so did our need for so much foreign intervention.

I said that prior to the First Gulf War, and I have been saying it ever since. And I say it now. The best foreign policy is one of development of our own resources and investment in what is needed to protect them. I don’t mean total isolationism; but I do mean that long and unwinnable wars in hostile places are wasteful.

We have sunk a great deal into our interventions, but then we sank a lot into the intervention in the Balkans and we have successfully got out of there.

We do not seem to have a Middle East policy. And we do not seem to have gained much value from the blood and treasure poured into the Middle East. I would think the American people deserve a frank and open discussion of just what our interests are. My candidate for a policy is to devote investment and resources into development of North American resources. And bring our troops home.