Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to re: "Left-leaning Americans"

Wow. So that's tryptophan withdrawal.
TB — (archived)

I won't try any of the numbered responses, or things like the North Korea situation, since I've done it many times in the past, and most of them involve the somewhat rarified concept of "analysis," i.e. altering parameters and trying to figure out what the results might have been had they been altered. As I've pointed out elsewhere, not a popular concept around here.

I am a bit too generous to assume people are too stupid to deal in this kind of logical abstraction, so I've just figured nobody really wants to take a very close look at the possible history of the Cold War, Gulf War (if any), or terrorism under Carter, Mondale, Dukakis and Gore. Fine.

I will take one point on you mentioned:

...has crippled our nation WRT the ability to wield any power internationally...

This makes absolutely no sense, unless you're complaining that we can't get bogged down in a ground war guerilla quagmire in Somalia, Iran, or North Korea because we're currently in Iraq. Our Air Force and Navy are largely sitting around twiddling their thumbs right now, and I suspect we could fight another aerial Bosnia-type war without extending ourselves by much.

It has already been proven with Saddam and others that rattling our sabers until the very leaves fall from the trees has absolutely no effect on a monomaniacal dictator. Sure as hell it isn't impressing Iran, carriers and all. So if you're talking "wielding power," you're talking tanks and troops rolling in. Are you worried we can't do that again? Do you WANT us to do that again?

And hey, guess what. I'd bet a search of my posts will reveal that I've made this point about thirty times, and it had just as much impact back then as it will probably have now. Same as all the others.

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