At this stage, it’s to late to correct the past; but it’s time the USA sets its future foreign policy. Not piecemeal, changing from President to President, from majority leader to his successor.
There is a dichotomy in American foreign policy, exemplified by the numerous god deeds including Peace Corps; and those who believe the world is a treasure chest for the benefit of the USA, like oil, mining and trading companies. The rush to punish any anti-American action is unfortunate; it really not possible to plan,devise and implement an intelligent course of action in the immediate panic after a disaster. Yet in the Bay of Tonkin, in the 9/11 and the Iraqi WMD resolutions, the weakness of American decision-making comes to fore. The Administration lies till it’s blue in its face, panics the population and their representatives who en masse support the Executive Branch. Even extreme liberals get taken! Remember even Bernie Sanders voted for the Iraqi war declaration. The Executive Branch makes the resolutions as vague as possible, allowing the war making powers of the Congress to be ignored for the next decade or two, as long as the President and his war council want to continue, which is as long as the President believes his lies are believed and supported by the American voter. Just like the GSA, the branch that supposedly overlooks the government finances for the Congress, there now needs to be a new branch that gathers and evaluated world events and foreign policy and intelligence on behalf of the Congress. I find it preposterous that after being lied to so often by the Executive Branch, the Congress has not demanded and instituted a General Foreign Policy and Intelligence Agency, a department responsible solely to the Congress. In a government of three branches, each branch needs its own intelligence gathering device, the Executive and the Legislative branches at least. Al this before we involve the loudly proclaimed Christianity we espouse loudly and vehemently. Here I bring you two important teachings: 1: Love thy Neighbour as thyself; 2: An Arm for an Arm, a Leg for a Leg. These require we look at crimes against us in charity and compassion, resorting to action after due consideration and deliberate debate. And secondly, the punishment meted needs to be fair, not punitive, not destructive. An arm for an arm, not an arm and leg for an arm. So important to weigh the consequences of our reactions, for these have repercussions for the future. Let’s face it, most of us now acknowledge we had no business in Vietnam and South East Asia,and Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Lybia. In Afghanistan, which was reputed to be the base for bin Ladin, we had no business to attack snd destroy the whole country; we should have sought to work with the Afghan and Pakistani governments to take him down. Though Bin Ladin and most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi, this was conveniently forgotten by the oil tycoon Bush II, and no retribution was taken on the Saudis. Afghanistan and later Iraq were the rams in the thicket who were sacrificed. And that most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis,as was bin Ladin? No repercussions as the Bush Family oil interests involved Saudi friendships. It has been reported that members of the Saudi royal family and bin Ladin who happened to be in the USA that fatal day were allowed to fly out even as the USA did not allow any other flights that day. About Iraq, I grow livid thinking about how the US government bragged about its ‘intelligent’ weapons which could be targeted so accurately. But the destruction rained on the Iraqis was to destroy their hospitals, water systems, their roads and their power grids - civilian targets! The Iraqi army was not directly attacked in the early surprise unilateral attacks. But let’s face it, I’m talking rather uselessly. The Congress will continue not to exercise its war making powers, letting it fall to the Executive Branch, and continue wasting time arguing about vaccinations and denying the sins of previous presidents. The Legislative Branch, full of aged men and women (in their late 70s and early 80s!) who are so careful plotting their re-election and grip of power, but truly give nothing new, no new ideas, no new policies with no understanding of the world as it is now. Their arteries are clogged, their bodies frail and achy, too distracted by old age for cogent thought. Alas! So it shall remain, unless we see that we excercise responsibilities that come with our dominance of the world. I wonder if the upcoming power China will be any better? Probably not. If we survive Covid and its nefarious variants. Or climate change. The first two Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In a scene from British serial The Crown, Lord Mountbatten goes to see his sister Princess Alice who says that she saw about the time she turned 70 that she was no longer a Participant but an Observer. As The lord says he worries about Britain, she says Who Cares? At my age, it’s no longer my problem! Hopefully the new generation of politicians learn to ameliorate the troubles of this world.