RE Interventionist Militarist Foreign Policy
Note (2:25 AM 9/4/2014): In the future, I intend to add thoughts re this topic to this blog-post on this page.
1. A potential foreign threat, can be dealt with by way of the offensive, the defensive, and also alternatives that fall somewhere in between the offensive and the defensive.
2. An example of an alternative that falls between the offensive and the defensive: let the Arab world's internal boundaries and power structure be resolved by the Arab world; combine with non-Arab powers to prevent the Arabs from colonizing neighboring non-Arab territories.
2-A. When the US gets involved in intra-Arab conflicts, you get: the unpopular 'colonist' US & its unpopular Arab partner in military conflict with popular Arabs; strong Arab sense of righteousness re invasion of their fatherland. Such a situation is inferior to what would prevail if the US stood by non-Arabs on the borders of the Arabs, to ward off Arab expansionism: non-Arabs fighting for THEIR fatherland, Arabs not having that sense of confident righteousness that comes from fighting for one's own land; the US as the popular partner against invasive colonialism; friendship between the invaded and their US defenders; the natural advantage of the defensive over the offensive; the relative ease with which enemy can be distinguished from friend.
3. Example of the defensive: render it impossible for an Arab aggressor to: do serious damage to a protected territory; damage a protected territory without getting caught and punished.
4. Example of the offensive: Invade an Arab country; invade a non-Arab country whose culture has been Arabicized; send troops to help one side in a dispute between Arab nations; send troops to help a side in a civil war.
5. The danger a group poses does not reliably correlate with their level of verbal aggression. A group truly intent on and capable of causing serious damage to the U.S., would competently hide its plot, not publicize it.
6. Radical aggressive violent middle-eastern gangs composed of a few thousand men, are not the only potential security threats faced by the US and other nations.
7. To prove that a serious prolonged US military attack against a US-hating middle-eastern gang, improves US and world physical and economic security, is not enough. Resources, time, energy, money, and personnel used in the attack on the gang, could conceivably accomplish more for the security of the US and its allies, if they were used for endeavors other than the attack on the gang.
8. There have been hundreds of changes in national borders over the past 200 years (List of national border changes from 1815 to 1914 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, List of national border changes since World War I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Historically when nations have meddled attempting to influence such changes in borders, they have thereby sometimes harmed and sometimes helped themselves. Nations have grown in power while ignoring changes in borders other than their own. Nations have declined in power while meddling in changes in borders other than their own.
1. A potential foreign threat, can be dealt with by way of the offensive, the defensive, and also alternatives that fall somewhere in between the offensive and the defensive.
2. An example of an alternative that falls between the offensive and the defensive: let the Arab world's internal boundaries and power structure be resolved by the Arab world; combine with non-Arab powers to prevent the Arabs from colonizing neighboring non-Arab territories.
2-A. When the US gets involved in intra-Arab conflicts, you get: the unpopular 'colonist' US & its unpopular Arab partner in military conflict with popular Arabs; strong Arab sense of righteousness re invasion of their fatherland. Such a situation is inferior to what would prevail if the US stood by non-Arabs on the borders of the Arabs, to ward off Arab expansionism: non-Arabs fighting for THEIR fatherland, Arabs not having that sense of confident righteousness that comes from fighting for one's own land; the US as the popular partner against invasive colonialism; friendship between the invaded and their US defenders; the natural advantage of the defensive over the offensive; the relative ease with which enemy can be distinguished from friend.
3. Example of the defensive: render it impossible for an Arab aggressor to: do serious damage to a protected territory; damage a protected territory without getting caught and punished.
4. Example of the offensive: Invade an Arab country; invade a non-Arab country whose culture has been Arabicized; send troops to help one side in a dispute between Arab nations; send troops to help a side in a civil war.
5. The danger a group poses does not reliably correlate with their level of verbal aggression. A group truly intent on and capable of causing serious damage to the U.S., would competently hide its plot, not publicize it.
6. Radical aggressive violent middle-eastern gangs composed of a few thousand men, are not the only potential security threats faced by the US and other nations.
7. To prove that a serious prolonged US military attack against a US-hating middle-eastern gang, improves US and world physical and economic security, is not enough. Resources, time, energy, money, and personnel used in the attack on the gang, could conceivably accomplish more for the security of the US and its allies, if they were used for endeavors other than the attack on the gang.
8. There have been hundreds of changes in national borders over the past 200 years (List of national border changes from 1815 to 1914 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, List of national border changes since World War I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Historically when nations have meddled attempting to influence such changes in borders, they have thereby sometimes harmed and sometimes helped themselves. Nations have grown in power while ignoring changes in borders other than their own. Nations have declined in power while meddling in changes in borders other than their own.
posted by David Virgil at 2:27 AM
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