On Ryan's last...

I had actually stopped checking the Bund for new posts... its been THAT long.  Had you not sent me the text, I'd still not have read it.

I think I see your point... but let me make mine and you can tell me if I do or don't.

The US has its "bread and butter" in FREEDOM, and we advocate representative democracy as the means by which all nations and states can gain what we have.  Tyranny and despotism are BAD, democracy and republicanism are GOOD.

However, this "bread and butter" foundation to our foreign policy framework has some HUGE drawbacks...

If the despotic tyrants are "over-thrown" and a new, democratically elected government is set up and operating, what happens when that elected representative system goes against American interests?  Hamas in Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Libya, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hezbollah in Lebanon... all now function as "legitimate" political bodies within their respective governments (or maintain outright elected control, as in Palestine).  Suddenly, we are faced with the prospect of preferring the former despot to the elected government.  As despotic and tyrannical as the Shah of Iran was in 1978... surely, we preferred him to the Revolutionary Council that kept Americans hostage for 444 days, right?  Arafat was bad as a terrorist leader... but wasn't he worse for American foreign policy as an elected official in the Palestinian government?

The failing in American foreign policy right now is that it is still entrenched in the dogmatic paradigm of the Cold War... we support those that are "with us" and oppose those that are "against us", regardless of the means or manner in which that government takes and maintains power over its people.

Our formative years as a nation were spent almost entirely in an "isolationist" mentality.  Unless attacked by outside forces (War of 1812), fighting in the US of A was a strictly internal, "domestic" sort of fighting and expansion.  We crushed the Native Americans, fought a small war with Mexico, and nearly tore ourselves apart during the Civil War.  On a "global scale" though, we did nothing until the imperialistic nationalism of a very select few took us to war with Spain over a few island territories.

In the last 25 years of American foreign policy, we seem to have forgotten that "all men are created equal" and that all people have the right to determine their own means of government.  Tragic as the Syrian war is... it is up to the Syrians to determine their future.  We should be supporting relief efforts to refugees in other nations, rather than picking sides and giving material support that WILL lead to more death and destruction.

I am rapidly losing faith in our government's ability to safely determine what is in the best "interests" of this nation... and that loss of faith has NOTHING to do with the party affiliation of the majority in Washington.  Democrat or Republican... I think they are ALL idiots.