Didn't we try that Isolationist approach prior to WWI and WWII??
It's a lot easier to an honest, viable, and intellectually based policy that will credibly deal with the state of the world today... if you just discuss the policy, and not say "something sorta similar but not really similar was tried 70 years ago and failed".
Disengaging from Israel-Egypt is not an isolationist policy. We can still have embassies all over the world, attempt to build democracy in Iraq, maintain close political relations with our so-called Saudi allies and even attempt to strengthen our relations with the looney mullahs in Iran. We just would no longer support the idea of an ethnic state in a traditionally multi-ethnic region surrounded by a larger population of Muslims that don't want the ethnic state there, that's it.
Doesn't principle count for anything any longer? Even though I'm not totally thrilled with Israeli policies (related to their ultra-orthodox factions), they are still a democracy and I think the principle should be that we defend democratic nations, who have pledged to to rely upon the democratic process to hold their governments accountable to their people.
Sure, that Israel is a democracy is a reason to support them, but you shouldn't look at that alone. A stateless Muslim next to Israel can't immigrate to Israel, but a Jew from Argentina can (and probably get loads of government aid). That's inequality based on ethnicity, and is highly unAmerican in principle. Don't principles count for anything anymore?
Israel is also a small ethnic state created in a multi-ethnic region where the vast majority of the surrounding population doesn't want an ethnic state. If the desires of the people (democracy) were the end goal, the majority of the people in that region don't want Israel there. That's got to count for a lot for those who want to value the principle of democracy. If the people of the Middle East were given the opportunity, they would resoundingly vote Israel out of existence.
Now maybe you believe we should focus solely upon Afghanistan, which harbored the Al Qai'da organization that attacked the US.
No, I believe that the primary reason the fanatics of the Muslim ME world hate the US is due to our unequivocal support for Isreal. Removing that support would leave the Muslim fanatics with no more reason to hate the US than they have to hate Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Iceland or any other country that doesn't border Muslim regions.
And they are not about to let us retreat from the fight because we represent everything they despise.
This is not accurate. They don't hate the United States because we are unIslamic, they hate us for our support for the non-Muslim country of Israel smack in the middle of their region. Everything else pales in comparison. Every Muslim hotspot in the world is about land control. |
