Field of Science

Neocon foreign policy bombs

The Phytophactor generally stays away from political topics because it's all just so depressing, however botany is a field where you get to travel a great deal, and as such you get to see the USA from many different perspectives if you take the trouble to actually talk to people in other countries by avoiding club med type resorts, packaged tours, and the usual tourist traps. Our foreign policy has not made me very proud because rather than being based on any real principles, our actions have been quite self-serving and short-sighted. Although not happy about the resulting situation, it is time for the USA's neocon adventure in Iraq to end. Rather than bring about a "friendly" democracy by the removal of a dictator under false pretenses, the presence of troops actually creates an armed resistance, a boost to the wrong factions, and an overall negative reaction from neighboring countries. So here's to the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. They have done more to undermine other dictators and repressive regimes than anything our foreign policy ever accomplished. Can you imagine what a shambles things would be if that old fuddy-duddy, but hawkish McCain had been elected? Can you imagine the size of the mess if a hawkish numbscull like Perry gets elected? Too bad our foreign policy didn't do better by the Iraqi people. Like us, maybe the Tunisians won't get the government they deserve, but it'll be the one they voted for. And it's time people in the USA remembered the neocons who started this mess and what an outmoded, self-defeating, simple-minded foreign policy they construct.

1 comment:

William M. Connolley said...

> than anything our foreign policy ever accomplished

You may be being overly critical. I'm no fan of your foreign policy either, tending towards a Chomskyan view, but you could make a case that facing down the Soviet Union and causing it to collapse was a major triumph, which we tend to overlook because it was so huge and now seems so inevitable.