Some thoughts I have left at Bereft

My thanks to Serendip at Bereft for taking some of my commentary and adding it into a post! Truly I do think that others make more of my words than I do... Be that as it may, I will send them along here and hope that they give some edification to those readers that wander by. As usual all spelling and syntax left intact to show the incapacity of the writer and editor... namely myself:

Doing nothing in the Middle East, save strive for economic 'stability' was a goal of the 'Realists' in foreign policy, and got us the mess of radical islam, non-Nation State terrorism that cannot be addressed by mere military means of the Union and a stasis that has not allowed vital demographic shifts to take place in that region. These were the exact same folks who did not want to fix the problems caused by the original drafting of National boundaries after WWI and left the place in a metastable condition for decades. Something that all the wonderful 'post-war analysts' and those decrying same have *missed* in their efforts to exhort sloth in foreign policy and do-nothing-ism. Considering that all these fine folks CAUSED the problems by not adhering to the original outlines after WWI, allowing unstable regions to be pushed together, backed autocrats and aristocrats tied to extremists in religion... actually doing nothing *now* is a positive guarantee of even worse things than a mere 3,000 dead one bright September morn.

The last time America ran from her responsibilities to an Ally, millions died. Well, it is a small world now and there is no place to run, no place to hide and 'lets all get along together'ism doesn't work too well when some folks not only *don't* want to get along together, but would prefer you in a non-free state of being or just plain dead. The flaccid response of the intellectual elite in the West is appalling. Unwilling to stand up for personal freedom and liberty, they cannot form a rational basis for having *rights*. Worse are those that will place *anything* above fighting... which means slavery as that, too, comes before fighting when that is placed dead last. If you don't want to be enslaved that means you must be willing to fight before that, somewhere, sometime. And if you do *that* then criticizing people who put it a bit higher on the scale of things they will not submit to is being morally relative and disingenuous, both. Most un-PC to make that distinction as all value systems should be equal in that conception... and if they *aren't* then a good reason for valuing one higher than another needs be put forth. And that means one must have a *bias* in outlook. I am personally biased for civilization, the universal rights of man to be free and the opposition of Empire wherever it tries to stand up as it is *always* the enemy of Liberty.When you remove a tyrant you stick around to help people up out of the chaos that results and get them able to stand on their own two feet to handle things. That can take a fair while. Maybe, someday, Germany will finally feel ready to do that as Japan is now.

Took a fair bit after the initial war in the Philippines in 1901 to get the worst of the insurgency beaten back, there. A few global phenomena like world wars, depression and having to recapture the place delayed things a bit but they finally did ask us to leave... and we did. The volcanic explosion was *their problem* then, but we stood ready to help those we had helped stand up to be Free. Not a great record that, but far better than the Wilsonian adventure in Haiti, which proved to be a fruitless, feckless nightmare due to the US political class. The UN hasn't done much in Kosovo since 1999... mind you Afghanistan and Iraq have both been freed, put together constitutions and held free elections while Kosovo has just stagnated. But that, too, was a Wilsonian 'good idea' by the Left.

As was Somalia until folks started to get killed. Can't say I think much of Reagan for bugging out of Lebanon, either, when Hezbollah backed by Syria and Iran had only bombed the US Embassy once and then the Marine Barracks... they bombed the Embassy again as a reminder they were still there afterwards. Running has just worked out so well! 300,000 Shia Iraqi dead because Bush 41 could not keep a promise to anyone there.No, saying it is all a mess and only the fault of 5 or 6 generations of diplomats doesn't let this generation escape the fact that if it does *nothing* then we hand our children a worse world and one that has liberty and freedom threatened more... and with less will to fight the enemies of it.

We sorrow over those that we lose in such fights, but to then feed those we save from the boot of the tyrant and throw them into the mouth of the maelstrom of chaos is dishonorable. We are scratched! The pain! And then millions die when we let go of those lifted up from such... and Allies betrayed because we are scratched. We have a lot of bad choices in this world and empowering those seeking empire is the worst of all.Time to stop running. Put paid to the butcher now. For this one will not be stopped by seas nor armies nor anything save death.

Truly, nothing I haven't said before, but maybe a bit better this time around... there are times when I really do think the Nation has lost its character and is, instead, just run by a bunch of *characters*.