It's important for us conservatives to have these conversations and air our differences while still respecting each others' opinions.
I am Anti-War
I am anti-war, but not for the America-hating reasons lefties are. My opposition is a libertarian one: No nation has the right to invade another unprovoked, and anyway it's a waste of money and a tragic expenditure of blood and treasure. Since I'm a medium-core libertarian, I do allow exceptions, especially when we are helping others help themselves.
I also support our ongoing efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, although I would like to see them wrapped up and us out of there. Americans are fighting and dying there, and they need our support
Here are four reasons I dislike the neocons, with links to my blog posts containing in-depth information for those who want more details.
Unintended Consequences
George Bush had good intentions, and he really could have tipped over the old Muslim World order, but our allies and public opinion abandoned us, and now the forces of evil there have retrenched. Despotic regimes everywhere are re-empowered, especially Iran. (The Road to Hell)
International Progressive projects are just as bad as domestic ones
Neo-Wilsonian efforts to usher in a New World Order is an internationalist progressive pipe dream, and we can't afford it. Conservatives cannot credibly rail against grand progressive projects at home while supporting them overseas. (Global War on American Prosperity)
Nation Building is folly
Nation building is folly when not done in cooperation with the people whose nation you are trying to build. Successes in this area have a common theme: Those we helped build or rebuild accepted our help and did most of the heavy lifting themselves.Also, small government advocates should admit that the central-planning we rail against at home is equally no good when we impose it on others overseas. (The Folly of Nation Building)
The Forgotten Human Cost of War
Finally, the human cost of war is all too often blithely dismissed. Couples divorce, families are irretrievably broken, lives are changed forever. People who have survived combat will never be the same again. Children will lose parents; spouses will lose their beloved; siblings and parents will be left with nothing but memories. War wrecks lives and produces a cohort of walking wounded. For this reason, military action should never be taken lightly. (War is Hell)
Conclusion
I think we need to look at what has happened and use our experience to make better decisions in the future. Would it really have mattered whether we ended up buying Kuwaiti oil from Kuwaiti despots versus an Iraqi one? Especially since we are doing business with Saudi despots who hate us and who are funding Islamic jihad against the West.
Sometimes it's better to sit back, save up some money and keep your powder dry. Now that's a conservative concept.
6 comments:
In my humble, but correct, opinion, the Revolutionary War was justified as we sought independence; WWII was justified because we were attacked and because Hitler promised to; a war on radical Islam everywhere it is found (if we can find them) is justified because they attacked us on our own soil. Kuwait...well, maybe; maybe not. At least we won that one.
I cannot think of another war that we engaged in that was totally justified.
I agree with Joe, sometimes war is necessary and we must not given to terrorism.
I just wish that our government would allow our servicemen and women do their jobs as they were trained to do and let them take care of things.
We should have already been cleared out of Afghanistan and Iraq by now, but with the bureaucrats running things, more innocent blood will be shed.
I drive a lot of other conservative blogger crazy with my take war as well. When I'm out I'll talk more about it, right now I have to bite my tongue when it comes to the MIC.
But yes, I with you on foreign policy.
As one who blogs and administrates at IBA, I can tell you that we do some dust-rolling with frequency, even among ourselves. Sorry that I missed the discussion you were having over there; I was all-consumed with and recovering from a yard sale.
Anyway, I am opposed to nation building. It saps our treasury, and unless we have trounced the hell out of the enemy (neo-cons will not), gets us embroiled in a nation that should have its own sovereignty and a culture that we don't understand. Self-rule cannot be imposed from the top down, and we're trying to do just that in Iraq. I don't expect what we've done in Iraq to hold very long.
One of the causes of the Trojan War: the Oath of Tyndareus.
The lesson therein: Don't forge too many alliances.
In many respects, the Trojan War was a world war, particularly amongst the gods of Olympus.
You guys would like Epaminondas at Infidel Blogger's Alliance.
He is a General Sherman kinda guy. Go big or go home. I wholeheartedly share that philosophy while sadly observing that it is politically impossible to fight such a war today.
We could crush Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, but we would be branded war criminals for doing it.
The sad outcome is those jihadis who survive contact with us claim they've "won."
Fighting a war the wrong way is worse than not fighting it at all.
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