Again, wrong assumptions.
"Only by closing down sources of our success could we get out of the Middle East"
They have nothting to offer us except oil, and that we can manage.
That is as silly as the other suggestions: "shut down the internet", stop exporting etc. Yes, they decry our cultural influences, but that is not the cause of combat. The Taleban, for example, know they can shut off cultural influences by going back to the Stone Age, and have done so. The real problem, and the source of suicide volunteers, is that we have been supporting combatants on various sides for years, to assuage various people who are nostalgic for WWII and who love combat.
That is the cause of "death to the infidels" attacks on our soil. We now have to respond, but we need to get it through our thick heads to be happy with commerce, not support physical combat of one side or the other. It is a fine conceit to think we can afford that. But we no longer can, when it means we are subject to being blown out of the sky as a result.
Our success rate for supporting combat in various foreign battles since WWII is less than worthless. Many wish to have WWII back again. Fine, become mercenaries and storm over there, I'm sure you can get plenty of funding from various idiot regimes that find combat rewarding. Just not the American taxpayer. Our rewards have been a little thin in the past half century.
Message 16441152
Somehow, you make the assumption that globalization requires making people buy our stuff at the point of a gun.
Globalization is fine. Only a fool would say it requires combat to sell something, or buy oil. Who are they going to sell oil to, if not us? I think we're intelligent enough to deal with that
The only other issue you could make would be that somehow oil prices would rise, which has been false so far. But even there the assumption is that we couldn't afford the price. My point is that we could. We are paying a much higher price, both in dollars and lives to support this combat habit.
The purposes of combat don't hold water, and are now costing us more than just tax dollars |
