Oh.. what a beautiful solution CD... We shouldn't "remake the world in our image", but it's alright when the Islamic militants of the world attempt to do so...
Hawk you ONCE AGAIN fail to make a distinction between, on the one hand, what we WANT the world to be and, on the other hand what we have the moral authority, the power and the ability to ACCOMPLISH in terms of changing the world.
It's NOT a matter of simply saying "the terrorists or radical Islamics try to use force to do it." They will fail just as we will fail. They are wrong just as we are wrong to attempt to use force to impose OUR will on the people of a sovereign nation.
Every people have the right and the need to find their own paths, within the limits of the rights of other nations to act in self defense, and further limited by international laws that prohibit certain internal acts that are so repugnant that the world community is united in opposition to them and will intervene when possible to stop them.
And please don't follow up this post with the usual refrain that you use when you read that what you want to do is not doable; ie., "you don't care--you aren't willing to go the distance--you're willing to abandon the people of the world to suffering, etc.." It's not doable because you can't mess with a foreign hive unless you kill most of the bees; those bees will not let it happen. If it's not doable, then it's not doable, and the issue begins and ends there. Look at Vietnam, look at the Russian experience in Afghanistan, look at the French in Vietnam and look at other instances where a major power attempted to use it's military might in a failed attempt to "remake" another nation.
As far as the "good ole days," I'd like to go back to the days when the world did not see the U.S. as an aggressive force that was prepared to use its military offensively to accomplish what it could not accomplish through the use of diplomacy or through the exercise of its vast economic power. I'd say that takes us back to sometime before JFK and certainly before the term of our current president. If we do not change our ways we'll have a two front war. We'll be facing terrorists and also nations and alliances of nations that have armed themselves defensively with wmds so that they can counter our energy-greedy military offensives. |
