America's Indispensable Friends

Townhall.com ^ | November 16, 2017 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Kaslin]

The world equates American military power with the maintenance of the postwar global order of free commerce, communications and travel.

Sometimes American power leads to costly, indecisive interventions like those in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya that were not able to translate superiority on the battlefield into lasting peace.

But amid the frustrations of American foreign policy, it is forgotten that the United States also plays a critical but more silent role in ensuring the survival of small, at-risk nations. The majority of them are democratic and pro-Western. But they all share the misfortune of living in dangerous neighborhoods full of bullies.

These small nations are a far cry from rogue clients of China and Russia -- theocratic Iran, autocratic North Korea and totalitarian Venezuela -- that oppress their own people and threaten their regions.

In the Middle East, there are two places that consistently remain pro-American: the nation of Israel and the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Both show a spirit and tenacity that so far have ensured their survival against aggressive and far larger neighbors. Both have few friends other than the United States. And both are anomalies. Israel is surrounded by Islamic neighbors. The ethnic Kurds live in the heart of the Arab Middle East. Quite admirably, the U.S. continues to be a patron of both.

For some 500 years, the Ottoman Empire terrified the Christian Middle East and Mediterranean world. Almost every country in its swath was Islamicized. Two tiny unique places were conquered but not transformed: Armenia and Greece. Both suffered terribly at the hands of the Ottomans and their successors, the early-20th-century Turkish state.

[Kaslin]

Victor Davis Hanson Column

Please Freepmail me, if you want to be added, or removed from the ping list

[Little Ray]

We’ve betrayed or offended all of our ‘friends.’ It is amazing that some of them stick by us.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I couldn't contain my weeping after reading that article. How dare us Americans be so ungrateful as to not appreciate such wonderful friends. Selflessly our friends remove the temptations of prosperity from America by accepting many millions of dollars in foreign aid. Bravely they promote American leadership and greatness by urging us into wars and commitments which allow our young people to enrich their lives with the chance to win medals, glories and sometimes even an honored death. And most wonderful of all, our precious allies help us by their campaign contributions which ensure that only our best and most noble leaders serve us in Congress.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................