The military empire is no different than any other bureaucracy. Whereas in the private sector, failure means that you go out of business; government failure means the exact opposite. When the bureaucrats fail, it’s an excuse for bigger budgets, and expansion of the failures.
Neocon Michael Ledeen continues in that tradition, and unsurprisingly want’s less talking with other countries, and more bomb dropping:
Take national security, for example. The whole world is in turmoil, as it has been for some time.
So the U.S. has troops stationed in something like 150 countries and still “the whole world is in turmoil”? One must conclude that the U.S. government having a military presence all over the world does not rid it of “turmoil”. Ledeen admits it. Obviously, a military empire does not equal peace and cooperation.
However, we’re dealing with a government bureaucracy here. Failure does not mean you pack up your bags and go home. The existence of turmoil, despite the clear failures of the empire, simply means more intervention is necessary.
The one “lesson” that should be clear is that when people declare enmity, and are actively moving against us, we should take them seriously, assume they mean it, and act accordingly. When jihadists, whether sweet-talking Iranians or mean-talking Sunni or Shi’ite fanatics, chant “Death to America” (as the Iranian Parliament did over the weekend), and send vicious killers into Iraq (where the slaughter is greater than in Syria), Syria, and various African countries, we must act against them.
Has Ledeen blocked out the fact that prior to the U.S. reckless invasion of Iraq, there were no Al-Qaeda there?
Has Ledeen blocked out the fact that prior to the U.S. “liberation” of the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein was no friend of Iran? And that after the “liberation”, U.S. leaders could only sneak into Iraq and were confined to highly guarded areas. Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmud Ahamdinejad visited a Baghdad that welcomed him with open arms.
The neocon “liberators” have left Iraq in total shambles, with 500,000 dead, and Ledeen has the audacity to say that “we must act against” the mess that they themselves have created?
If we don’t, things will only get worse, more Americans will be murdered, and the chances of a really big war will increase…Inaction–masked by “negotiations” which provide cover for our enemies to get even stronger–is now our official policy…The world yearns for American leadership.
Oh, the world yearns for American leadership alright. However it is leadership in the direction of sanity. That is, admit that it is not the role of the U.S. to ‘remake’ the Middle East; it is not the role of the U.S. to be the policeman of the world; and it’s time to bring the troops home.
The neocon nightmare must be put to an end and U.S. foreign policy must go back to its roots of peace, commerce, and no entangling alliances.
