Re: "As a strategy, as opposed to a tactic, I like your thinking. Just watch Basra...."
Thank you, Pomp.
But, I'd like to take this time to point out what should be obvious: that no 'one' strategy is likely to be sufficient, in and of itself, to produce the kind of full and satisfying long-term strategic victory for 'Western' values that I believe we should be aiming for.
The task to too large and too complicated for that. Likely, it will take applications of *numerous* strategies, often in parallel, some very long-term and some shorter in periodicity, to win such a major global victory.
What I have taken pains to suggest (numerous times) on these pages (let's call it 'divide and conquer' just to be simple) is just one thread, out of many, that must be pursued.
Obviously, there are many others.
(For example, in some cases 'nation specific' strategies are likely to provide cost-effective results. The demographic situation in Iran offers one obvious pressure point that should fairly easily prove amenable to the proper leverage. Certain appeals of Western 'consumer' society - apart from the appeals of freedom and individual liberty that also shine out - worked very well in the former Soviet Empire... and shine as brilliant successes among the Communists of China and Vietnam also today, and are posed for similar success among the surging young population in Iran....)
But, I guess my MAIN point is that *whatever* strategies are selected to be advanced --- they must be measured in a cold, rational, hard-eyed way for whatever success (or lack thereof) that they provide.
'Faith-based' military/economic/social strategies, (rather then sorting among all contending possible strategies by rational metrics such as cost-effectiveness), is no way to go.
Simply a recipe for disaster.
Go with what policies actually WORK... (not with what makes you 'feel good').
"The difference between a policy and a crusade is that a policy is judged by its results, while a crusade is judged by how good it makes its crusaders feel." --- Thomas Sowell
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." --- Philip K. Dick
As Keynes famously noted, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" |
