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| Iraq |
| Spengler: America wants the impossible |
| 2014-06-17 |
| The United States has misunderstood everyone in the world outside its borders and mismanaged everything. It has done so with a bipartisan consensus so broad and deep that it has no opposition except simple-minded isolationism. America gets unwanted results — most recently in Iraq - because it wants the wrong things in the first place. And there seems to be no way to persuade Americans otherwise. The crumbling of the Iraqi state will provide yet another pretext for mutual recriminations among political parties. The trouble is that both parties wanted the wrong thing to begin with. Very long. Some selected paragraphs ...On the left, we have the likes of Obama's so-called national security team, including human-rights dabblers like Samantha Power and Ben Rhodes. On the right we have the neoconservatives, who believe that Being Determines Consciousness (democratic institutions will make people into democrats), and Catholic natural law theory, which boils down to the assertion that unaided human reason will lead everyone to the Western idea of individual liberty and democratic governance. ...None of this will change in face of practical consequences, even the direst ones. The Republican foreign policy establishment will blame Obama for the stupidity of leaving Iraq without a modest American military force; there will be no introspection, no reflection of the errors that plagued American intervention from the outset. It isn't only that too many careers and too much political capital is at stake: Americans simply don't want to think about the world as it actually is. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
#10 I was unaware the average people of any country had any effing clue about anything. Apparently that's a uniquely American trait and we should all slit our wrists in angst over it.2000 years ago, Cicero nailed it: Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? And the average Roman in the street during Cicero's time knew little more about history than the myths and legends he heard around the family hearth. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2014-06-17 22:23 |
| #9 Once upon a time america knew those in other countries were messed up. We all come from folks that risked all to flee those places. It is only recently that we doubted that opinion but i believe the middle east has restored that opinion. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2014-06-17 19:18 |
| #8 I'm doing my darnedest from deep in red-state Texas, writing historical fiction. Look, what most people take away from history classes in school is outright bunk ... politically-correct, chewed-to-mush grey goo muck. What they take away from the major pop-media organs is more of the same. What I would say is to support those creators who are working outside the box - indy-published authors, self-financed move makers, amateur historians of every stripe, right down to the local reenactors. Despair is a sin. Lie down and bleed a bit if you must, but get up and fight again. Isn't our past, our people, our history WORTH fighting for? *steps down from soap-box* All right, back to the polite and well-meaning civil discourse. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2014-06-17 18:17 |
| #7 We are beyond redemption.Posted by Uncle Phester Earthly 'redemption' anyway. It should now be abundantly clear, even to the unbeliever, that providence is the only one who can sort this mess out. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-06-17 14:38 |
| #6 "It is a fool's errand to stabilize them [Muslim states]; the best one can do is to prevent their problems from spilling over onto us." If only. Open borders and feel-good immigration standards don't do much for us or The U.S. Uyghurs? Aren't they Harry Reid's bestest buddies? I also doubt the framers could process our current predicament of importing Somali's just to have them go back and raise hell under the banner of Allen. And then come back. We are beyond redemption. |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2014-06-17 13:33 |
| #5 Americans may not be taught real history, but the underlying problem is, they don't care about it, and would much rather pursue other interests. They are like perpetual children. 2000 years ago, Cicero nailed it: Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? I don't know how people can be taught to appreciate history. However, Cicero also said, Where there's life, there's hope. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-06-17 12:40 |
| #4 FTA: "No-one could have gone to American universities and recruited the soldiers, spies and diplomats to execute a plan which preferred the slow and inevitable spread of human misery to a cataclysmic alternative." Especially now when the domestic economy is faced with the same two miserable choices. Better to keep kicking the can down the road. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2014-06-17 12:30 |
| #3 Americans simply don't want to think about the world as it actually is. Back in the early 1900s where the most education people got was to the 8th grade, this was understandable. Now days it is by design as the education system is built for assimilation and subjugation. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2014-06-17 12:20 |
| #2 Americans simply don't want to think about the world as it actually is. How can they? They're not taught real history. They have no record to go on other than what they recall in their own lifetime and what the Marxist infused academia/media tell them. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-06-17 12:13 |
| #1 Fascinating article. Good effort g(r)om, but I'm still not entirely convinced I should hate myself. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-06-17 12:01 |