dagblog - Comments for "Middle East Fear: We All Should Be Afraid"

For us, to the extent that

jollyroger — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 17:37:12 +0000

For us, to the extent that we have yet to recognize the limits of what we can do with our military in any meaningful long-term sense, as you note it remains critically important for us to come to accept that.

You touch here on what was so bitterly disappointing about the first speech Obama gave at West Point (shich supposely laid out the new, more thoughtful interventionism...), in it's casual assumption at base, of the right of the United States to project military power ad libidum in service of it's perceived national interests, no matter how venal or narrow those interests might, upon any sort of fair examination, be.

Flattery will get you

Bruce Levine — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 11:44:42 +0000

In reply to Thanks for your comment. I

Flattery will get you anywhere! Thank you Danny.

Thanks for your comment. I

Danny Cardwell — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 02:14:36 +0000

In reply to Danny, point taken on the

Thanks for your comment. I read you post on the Iran negotiations: very well thought out and written.

Thanks for taking the time to

Danny Cardwell — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 01:31:56 +0000

In reply to I guess I fear anybody who

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Danny, point taken on the

Bruce Levine — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 19:04:58 +0000

In reply to Middle East Fear: We All Should Be Afraid

Danny, point taken on the ordinary course tendency to allow fear to overtake us collectively. For us, to the extent that we have yet to recognize the limits of what we can do with our military in any meaningful long-term sense, as you note it remains critically important for us to come to accept that. And I also agree with you that the manner in which we adjust once we accept these limitations is equally important. Finding the balance between the footprint we keep and our dependence on the military is an ongoing and necessary process.

Nice work.

Hey hey...

oldenGoldenDecoy — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 16:01:06 +0000

In reply to Middle East Fear: We All Should Be Afraid

Hey hey...

Thanks for such a detailed post.

I was born in 1946. I use to be AFRAID every time we had a "drop drill" in elementary school.

Some ten years later I was training fellow US Naval aviators in escape and evasion tactics. And then about the same time I really learned "how" to love the bomb.

Final Note: I really agree with your assessment here:

Every bomb dropped lands somewhere. yes, war is sometimes necessary, but we can't kill our way out of this problem.

~OGD~

I guess I fear anybody who

Michael Maiello — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 13:28:04 +0000

In reply to Middle East Fear: We All Should Be Afraid

I guess I fear anybody who will behead another person, particularly when such people form groups. That said, we have killers in our culture as well, some far worse, and we have weapons that allow us to kill remotely. Our government can vaporize entire cities. It's important to remember our own killers and capabilities because we might actually have some influence over those.

It's also important to realize what a limited view we have of other places. ISIS gets all the press, for obvious reasons, but is not representative of "over there."

One thing that always bugged me about Star Trek is how the Klingon characters were always about half an inch from starting a fight. Worf would be at a restaurant and his appetizer would come out cold and all of the sudden he's got a knife to the throat of the chef. Those people in the Middle East are not Klingons, always fighting and killing for honor and the like, We can't make policy under that delusion.