cure to the insanity
Apparently, the simple logic behind Ron Paul’s argument against non-intervention is way over-the-heads of the other candidates. Whether or not the U.S. wins every battle in Iraq really is inconsequential in terms how successful the geopolitical agenda is. For those who didn’t pay careful attention to what I just wrote, I wasn’t diminishing the consequences in terms of blood and treasure. What I am saying is that the U.S. can win every battle, but still not achieve military victory.
Unfortunately for Senator McCain, he must not be aware that this is an occupation. It is fairly hard to win an occupation. It is the occupation itself that fuels the insurgency, and no matter how many battles the U.S. wins, as long as the battles never end, military victory will be elusive.
There is yet another fallacy in McCain’s thinking: Conflating a military victory with success. In other words, even if the U.S. were to achieve a military victory, what do We-the-People win?
Today, we are less free than ever before. We have less economic opportunity than ever before. These are corollaries of being on a perpetual war footing. The natural consequence of empire is destruction of liberty and wealth.
That there are people throughout the world who wish to kill Americans has never been in dispute. But this is the wrong answer to the two questions that need to be answered.
Why does this threat exist? If it is due to a lack of intervention abroad, then why isn’t every other country throughout the world at war for the same reason? Burkina Faso doesn’t have a huge security-industrial complex, nor does she have troops all over the globe, yet her fate isn’t imperiled. Seriously. Pursuant to neoconservative orthodoxy, non-intervention itself creates the conditions for intervention, which means every country not at war should be at war.*
What is the most efficient way to deal with the threat? How does invading and occupying foreign territory do anything to curtail the threat of asymmetrical warfare, i.e., terrorism? That there are terrorists across the globe does not excuse the occupation of Iraq, nor does it make Iraq a mission worth finishing.
Only Ron Paul answers the above two questions with sense. Ron Paul is the cure to the insanity.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44163
*Emphasis added by me.
At some point I suppose I shall have to cease just quoting other people and perhaps say something myself. But not today.
