Things that make you go hmmmm.......

I just finished reading Imperial Hubris about five or six days ago. I was taking time to let the book soak in and start reading The 9/11 Commission Report. My final take on Imperial Hubris is that it was a damn fine book. The author SEEMED as if he was able to view the mistakes and problems he talks about from where they were being made. The one thing I liked best about this book is that it presents one argument for why I want Bush out this year. Going after people who want to kill us is fine. However, if we wanted Osama and company dead or alive, we should have inundated Afghanistan with American forces. It wouldn't have been easy, but I'm sure that we could have managed. Another downfall of this administration (and I'm sure that the Democrats would be doing the same thing) is that we seem completely unwilling to see if any of the arguments used by bin Laden to recruit might be fueled by U.S. policy. Reevaluation of policy concerning the Middle East would go a long way towards taking some of the sting out of bin Laden's ability to recruit. Iraq? I won't even go there.

The author of Imperial Hubris cites a great quote from John Quincy Adams. That quote follows:

"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her [America’s] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit."

-John Quincy Adams, 1821

The author convincingly argues that when we have an enemy, we must aim to completely DESTROY that enemy. However, there are other things we can do to make ourselves safer. Amazingly, the author's foreign policy would seem to correspond with that of the Libertarians. That's my view.

One well-followed blog (and one post in particular) calls this "silly Panglossianism". I don't believe that evaluating/changing our policy will END terrorism (nor do I think the Libertarians believe that). However, I believe it would make matters more difficult for the bin Ladens of the world. Every little bit helps.