America's Global Role: Is the Neo Conservative Foreign Policy the best way to go?
First, I should state that I supported the war against Iraq. I am a unique creature--a Democrat with a neo-conservative foreign policy.
This neo-conservative foreign policy is based upon the notion that since we are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, we should use the overwhelming strength and superiorty of the our military in a preventive and preemptive way.
I was generally accepting of this notion, until I read an article in which the author explore the possible consequences of such action.
If we become the world's policemen or, as the author puts it...the world's guarantors, then no other nation, or its people, will take action in situations for which they are responsible.
For example, by guaranteeing the security of Israel, it ensures that no Israeli government will make a territorial settlement with the Palestinians. Therefore there will be no peace in the Middle East. I am as supportive of Israel as anyone, and even I recognize that Israel will have to make some concessions in order for there to be peace.
By supporting the Mubarak regime in Egypt of the Fayd kingdom in Saudi Arabia, the US removes the pressure for democratization. With an external power guaranteeing stability, the people of Egypt and Saudi Arabia will never revolt or at least take part in democratic reform. Terrorism against America is easier, because we ultimately are at fault for their predicament. I know that some will state that without these regimes in Egypt and SA, these countries will become theocracies like Iran. Well, as least then we will know where they stand. Right now, we are allies with Saudi Arabia even though their people hate and kill us at every opportunity. So, how about this?
What if we just allowed history to take its course, without American Intervention?
What if, in the past, we let Vietname go communist without losing 50,000 Americans to achieve the same result. What if we let Europe deal with Yugoslavia in the 1990's.
Let the Iranian people deal with the Ayatollahs until they finally revolt.
Let Mubarak and King Fayd fall to the Islamists. Let Victor Chavez take on Venezuela's capitalists and landowners.
Let these countries and their people take responsibility for and control of their own destiny, free to make their own revolutions, and fumble toward liberal democracy of their own accord. At least then, they would have no one to blame but themselves and their government. The point is they would not blame the United States.
The US rails against the irresponsibility of the European and Asian powers for their failure to manage even their own backyards, and despises the anger of the Arab masses at America. However, our foreign policy is responsible for such failure and anger. With the best of intentions, the US encourages the very behavior it works against. The more we dominate and intervene, the more terrorists created, the more unsupportive fellow allies and enemies become.
Therefore, now is the perfect time for the United States to withdraw from the Korean peninsula. To withdraw from the Middle East after we have restored order in Iraq.
The prospect of an American imperium is on people's minds. Having demonstrated its power in Iraq, the US can abdicate without revealing weakness. Finally we can worry about ourselves, and we can let the world survive on its own for awhile with no America to blame. Soon they will be begging for us to help them, and soon they will all love America again.
"Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."- Mark Twain