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Swear Off Nation-Building
Swear Off Nation-Building
Justin Logan at 4/7/2008 1:06PM
The next U.S. president needs to end U.S. support for the practice of nation-building--is not something that the U.S. is good at and failing states do not threaten U.S. national security interests.
Hooray for Justin Logan. But how the heck does he expect the war profiteers to collect their booty, while destroying the planet?
You have my sympathy if not my entire agreement.
I do agree that boots on the ground is not the way to go about it. We cannot force anyone to behave and that is not what our military is for.
But to think we can let failed states continue, like festering sores is, I say, the other side of the lie.
What we need is a balanced policy that takes into account both the needs of the world AND our very limited ability to make long, costly commitments.
Though we cannot be king, we can still be very potent king makers. And we can do this with firing scarcely a single bullet.
We have immense capabilities in trade and aid, but we cannot do everything ourselves. This is NOT the end of world war two. And we are certainly NOT the only super power. Just merely, possibly, the best armed one.
'Nation building', if it's to be done at all, is going to have to be a United Nations job. Yes, we should help. But no, we should neither dictate only our terms, nor should we EVER take on the job solo.
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