Whose fault was it that they were "up to there eyeballs in angry wildcats"? You speak as if the situation were inflicted on them...
Yes, the Iraqis played everyone, but the Soviets were their principal military sponsors. Do you think that was out of the goodness of their hearts?
The United States, under Carter, originally supported the Sandanistas. The problem was not the successful overthrow of Somoza, but the insistence on creating a one- party state in alliance with Cuba/the Soviet Union, and acting as a conduit for support of revolutionary activities elsewhere, particularly El Salvador. Why do you think that Carter turned on them?
The primary importance of Soviet activity in Europe was political, very likely, but decoupling Europe from the United States was the goal, which we found threatening. Besides, one cannot take the existential threat of a huge army massed on the borders of Central Europe lightly.
Why would you think that a determination not to repeat the mistakes leading up to World War Two was automatically silly? It is easy to say that each situation is novel, but unless we can look for precedent in history, we have little hope for learning anything.
The logical strategy would be whatever works. Period.
North/south? First, I doubt that most of the world's peoples gave it a second thought, it was a staple of left- wing rhetoric. Second, even though we should care about the effect of our actions on our fellow man, the main action, militarily, diplomatically, and economically, is in Europe and sections of Asia, and the "perspective" of policy planners merely reflects that reality. Most of the world is too underdeveloped to have much of an impact in those areas. Third, of course we are "Eurocentric", most of our trade and foreign capital, as well as our principal alliances, are with the Europeans. I am "DC- centric", because that is the world I live in. As the United States traded more with Asia, the Pacific Rim was coming onto its radar moreso. We are guided by our own interests, not the musings of Franz Fanon.... |
