Hi LindyBill; Okay, what I call "isolationism", you can rename to be "not sending soldiers out to fight unless absolutely necessary, and not becoming closely tied to shaky governments that require US assistance". If there is another term for it, please advise, I use "isolationism" simply because it's short and sort of what I want to describe.
Re: "On your ME solution, do you really think we are going to walk away from our gas station?"
I propose that the US obtain oil in the traditional, moral way, paying for it. If you want to suggest that we find an alternative way, one that involves the use of force, then I suggest that you crack the Bible, and reread the section having to do with the Ten Commandments.
I mean really! The hell are you talking about? As it is now, the Iraqi government definitely hates us, but they still pump oil out of the ground and sell it to us. The same applies to the Libyans and several other oil producers. Because of the way the oil market works, it's not possible for even a group of producers to cut a single nation off from oil. Only military force can do that, and only we have sufficient military force. The alternative, as in the oil crisis of the 70s, is to reduce production and raise the price of oil for everyone.
In other words, it's impossible for the Arabs to make LindyBill walk to the gas station without them also making Jacque Appeasemant in Paris France also walk to his gas station.
I didn't mean "isolationism" to mean that we would close the borders and prevent the free flow of goods and services, but instead that we would pull our troops and weapons back and not get involved in foreign entanglements. This is the traditional, and very successful, US foreign policy for most of 200 years. Exceptions should only be taken for very good reasons.
WW1, WW2, and the Cold War (which included Korea and Vietnam) all had very good reasons. Vietnam was a tactical mistake, not a strategic one. That is, fighting the Communists was a good idea, just not in Vietnam.
By the way, our problems in Vietnam were due to the shitty way the French treated the locals before we got involved. This mirrors our problems in the Middle East where it is Israel's shitty treatment of the locals that has caused our problems.
But at least we had strategic reasons for fighting Communism.
-- Carl |
