Op-ed: They Don't Mean Well
Americans have a strange need to believe that their “leaders” mean well. Nowhere is this more true than in foreign policy. Even when the horror of some government operation is revealed (usually after being kept from the American people), solemn pundits and elder statesmen will drone on about unintended consequences and the fog of war, while admonishing against “pointless” recriminations. Typically, the harshest accusation leveled against those responsible for a calamity is incompetence, and even that’s rare.
Yet when one examines the U.S. government’s bloody record in foreign affairs, it is tough to come away thinking that the long trail of death, mayhem, and devastation is anything but the result of malevolence in the pursuit of political and economic interest.
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Just had to say I found this an illuminating and crucially important article and perspective.
ReplyDeleteYou here address a barrier that so many people can't seem to cross: thinking the USA is good and means well, regardless of the mass murders, terrorism, etc., it commits.
I have found one way to crash people into this barrier is to ask them if they think Saddam Hussein's gassing of the Iranians and Kurds was wrong. When they say yes, I tell them the USA was fully and openly complicit in those acts, and explain how.
The confusion then becomes palpable on their faces. Their minds are trying to reconcile US complicity in something they already said was wrong. How could it be? They then deny that this could be true, so I show the facts, which are of course open and public record.
This, I hope, also starts people on the path to ending their automatic trust of perceived "authority" figures.
Thanks again for this great article.
Thank you. Your method of getting people to think is excellent!
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