#non-interventionism

We still have 2,000 troops in Syria, 5,000 in Iraq, 14,000 in Afghanistan. We just moved an aircraft carrier task force, B-52s and 1,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to confront Iran. We are about to impose sanctions on the Iranian foreign minister with whom we would need to negotiate to avoid a war.

Iraq under Saddam Hussein was one of the most liberal states in the Middle East, if not the entire Islamic world. Taxes were low, restrictions on entrepreneurship were minimal, private ownership of firearms was permitted as were alcoholic beverages and gambling casinos. Christians and other religious minorities were typically allowed freedom of worship, women were integrated into society and allowed education and career opportunities. “Islamo-Fascists” were repressed and kept out of power. Health and literacy levels were high by regional standards and Iraq was in the process of modernization. All of that changed during Gulf War One when the US/UN forces bombed Iraq back into a pre-industrial state. Subsequent sanctions led to dramatic increases in death from preventable diseases, particularly among children, severe economic regression and increased repression. The invasion of Gulf War Two pushed Iraq still further over the abyss and now Islamic fundamentalists are slowly but steadily coming to power, destroying the modernization and economic and educational advances of the Baathist regime, persecuting women and religious minorities and pushing Iraq towards an Afghanistan-like religious civil war. Many Iraqis now wish for the good old days of Saddam.

It is thus double-speak when the U.N. states that it will not intervene in a state’s internal affairs, whether by economic sanctions or by armed force. As is often the case, ‘atrocity propaganda’ is a prelude to the invasion of some targeted state that somehow offends the ‘international community’. An early example is the British invasion of the Afrikaner republics to secure their mineral wealth, under the pretext of defending the ‘Uitlanders’ from ‘Boer oppression’. Then it was called imperialism; now it’s called globalization. There is seldom more perfect a justification for such propaganda against a state than the claim that it is mistreating migrants or ethnic minorities.

The rise and influence of Communism, military state capitalism, the police state, and the impending doom of civilization, have been the penalty enacted for our meddling abroad in situations which did not materially affect either our security or our prestige. Our national security was not even remotely threatened in the case of either World War. There was no clear moral issue impelling to intervene in either world conflict. The level of civilization was lowered rather than raised by our intervention.

Mike Pompeo saying Iran is “spreading death and destruction around the world” is as big a lie as an economist saying the Federal Reserve has been “effective in managing the money supply and preventing economic crises.”

Our share of the global economy is much shrunken from Reagan’s time. Our deficit is approaching $1 trillion. Our debt is surging toward 100 percent of GDP. Entitlements are consuming our national wealth. We are committed to containing the two other greatest powers, Russia and China. We are tied down militarily in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, with the War Party beating the drums for another and larger war — with Iran. And we are sanctioning adversaries and allies for not following our leadership of the West and the world. In looking at America’s global commitments, greatly expanded since our Cold War victory, one word come to mind: unsustainable.

There is a saying that lefists use to differentiate themselves from left wing people they dislike. They usually say, "That person is a liberal not leftist." Usually, I dislike that phrase because it came off like covering their asses. It's like how progressives want to distinguish themselves from liberals, even though progressives have more in common with liberals than they do hardcore leftists. No matter how hard you complain the liberals and progressives are the closest thing we have to a left wing in America.