Time for US to Butt Out

Western Hero ^ | 6 Jan 10 | Silverfiddle

[foutsc]

Yemen Intervention is a Fool's Errand

Marc Lynch, who is no conservative, has written an excellent article on Yemen that I wholeheartedly agree with.  Unlike the thumb-sucking bedwetters at the Guardian, he provides reasons for his opposition to any US intervention in that Hell's half acre at the ass-end of the Arabian peninsula.

No Easy Answers

There are no easy answers to the problems infesting our globe's many intractable hot spots.  Yemen looks like another situation where an oppressive, decrepit regime will invite us in to do its dirty work, while we think we're fighting for freedom.  They paint their enemies as "terrorists" and unleash the awesome American firepower against them.  

Lynch warns against both military intervention and development assistance.  The former would be a quagmire and the latter would be sucked up by greedy, corrupt officials.  He posits that no realistic option offers even an outside chance of success, so we should simply manage the situation as it suits our national interests. 

Marc Lynch's Conclusion:

It's never as satisfying as a morally pure call to battle, but the administration shouldn't over-react or under-react.

Be patient, build intelligence and CT assets, strike against clearly AQ targets when available but only where the civilian costs will be minimal and the rewards high, search out local partners... the usual.

But the administration shouldn't fall into the trap of thinking it must "do something" to fend off political harping from the right and end up over-committing... or taking steps which ultimately make the situation worse.

Amen!  And ditto for Iran 

  I pray we are covertly funneling millions to the Iranian opposition, but we should not send one American soldier or bomb.

Bring Iraq to a good end (and they are on their way in a land where Saudi Arabia or Turkey is considered "good").  Bring Afghanistan to an acceptable end, and assiduously avoid future "big footprint" operations like the money-wasting plagues that they are. 

Middle East:  The World's Nuthouse

These people have been bombing, shooting and stabbing and stoning one another since time immemorial, what makes us think that we can change them?  If we merely stay out of the way, they will start attacking each other over ancient, still simmering feuds instead of going after us.  Remember the charnel house that was the 10-year Iran-Iraq War?

Europe, Saudi and the rest of you who no longer share our values, you're on your own!

And while we're at it, we need to fold up the Western European security umbrella as well.  Time for our cousins across the pond to man up and learn to live without the bossy hyperpower on their backs all the time.

Sounds isolationist, but I'm not.  We just need to pick our battles wisely.  Too often we've been suckered into petty parochial struggles where the craftiest side was able to demonize the other, wrongly rousing Uncle Sam's sense of righteousness, always with unintended consequences.  Israel is the only country in that region worth fighting for, and they can take care of themselves.

No Happy Endings

Everything can't be tied up neatly with a nice bow on top.  Poverty and violence abound in most of the world (what Thomas P.M. Barnett calls The Gap).  Some societies do not cohere well because of the nature of the people, the terrain, lack of resources, whatever.  These fractious conditions spawn congenitally weak governments...

"... where every man is Enemy to every man... And the life of man [is], solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."  -- Thomas Hobbes

Real Conservatives Heed Washington's Admonition Against Foreign Entanglements

A forgotten component of traditional conservatism that we must reassert is the wariness towards foreign entanglements.  That doesn't mean withdraw from the world; it means don't get suckered into the internal affairs of other countries, and don't get sucked into fights between warring factions.

And this isn't a "be nice so the bed people will start liking us" argument.  Bad people will always hate us because we stand for good.  We should reserve the right to unapologetically smack them at the time and place of our choosing based on our national interests, not some foreign power.

[OldDeckHand]

"And while we're at it, we need to fold up the Western European security umbrella as well. "

This is the only part in which I'm in agreement. The European Union has enjoyed the the security of America's protection, without shouldering their portion of the financial burden for far too long. If Germany or France or the UK for that matter, is worried about the reemerging Russian empire, then let them start spending more than a few percentage points of their combined GDP on defense. We can't afford it anymore.

[La Lydia]

I tend to lean toward the "not a single American life" for that hell hole. (Some bombing wouldn't be out of line.)

Yemen is perched on the hem of the Saudis' robes, and its stink gets stronger every day. Let them take care of it, Lord knows we have sold them enough military hardware.