The Interventionist Failures and How To Fix Them
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Peace and Prosperity Internet page, where Ron Paul’s Institute for Peace and Prosperity will provide information, analysis, tools, and perspectives to help guide and promote the coming non-intervention moment in the United States.
A look at latest opinion polls clearly demonstrates that an increasing number of Americans – in some categories a critical mass – have lost faith in the aggressive interventionist policies of the recent era. Bombings, drones, invasions of numerous countries overseas have not been received by the residents of those countries with gratitude.
There are no flowers in the streets to greet the US military when boots hit the ground. Sadly, what they have most often been greeted with is roadside bombs and other horrors.
As for those living under constant threat of a US drone attack, for example in Pakistan where Senator Lindsay Graham claims we have killed some 4,700 individuals by drone, we see the simmering hatred threatening to boil over daily. In Pakistan, one of the world’s most unstable and potentially dangerous countries is further destabilized daily largely due to US drone policy. Considering the overwhelming percentage of civilians killed by drone versus bona fide terrorists, it is unsurprising that nearly 100 percent of those recently polled in Pakistan view the US government as their enemy.
In Iraq, the liberated government has not quite become the compliant subject that the war-planners promised. Instead, leaders have begun to pursue an independent foreign policy that is often at odds with the desires of the US administration. Instead of ushering in a more peaceful and secure Iraq, after ten years the truth is Iraq is a much more violent and deadly place than when the first US bombs fell. No one in his right mind would look at the carnage, murder, bombings, and mayhem in Iraq and deem the 2003 invasion a success story.
The same is true in places like Libya, where the US led a weeks-long bombing campaign to remove a secular authoritarian government. Now that the smoke has cleared we see a devastated country where no American or Westerner dare travel. We see a country governed by roving gangs of extremists and an economy thoroughly destroyed. This are the success stories of the neo-conservatives, be they right-wing hawks or left-leaning “humanitarian interventionists.”
The foreign policy planners and their neo-conservative Rasputins have turned the dream of a more peaceful world after the end of the Cold War into a nightmare. They have had their way with US foreign policy, drowning out the realists and the non-interventionists, screaming into every available microphone that only their way will bring us peace and security. But they have failed. We are not more secure at home, despite spending trillions. We have seen that recently. But when the government fails to protect us they can only demand more of our money and more of our freedoms for more empty promises. The US is not even by their standards in a strategically advantaged position overseas, as everywhere there is distrust and suspicion.
This is the beginning of a new era. I am grateful to Dr. Paul for allowing me to be a part of his plans. I am humbled. And we are ready to work.
Daniel McAdams is the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.