[Danzig]

Originally Posted by miraja2

Okay, I'm going to take an unususal step here and actually defend Quiet Chris.....a little bit. I certainly don't agree with a lot of the stuff the guy has had to say in this thread, but I think the idea of isolationism has at least some merit, and I don't exactly understand why so many Americans today - particularly Conservatives - scoff at the idea. Does isolationism mean that the U.S. should have no state department, or defense department? Of course not, but in the decades after WWII the United States has generally operated under the assumption that "my enemy's enemy is always my friend," and that the U.S. is always best served by intervening. How has that worked out? While it could be argued either way, there are certainly a LOT of negatives that have come out of this approach for both Americans and people around the world. How much did the U.S. involvement in Guatemala, Turkey, Greece, Afghanistan, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, etc really have to do with "winning" the war against "Communism", or helping any American citizens? By most accounts, not much. How many people - both U.S. soldiers and civilians of those countries - died from those actions? By all accounts, a lot.

Before they were taken over by the neo-cons, the Republican Party used to be (and people like Ron Paul still are) a bastion of isolationism. Is the basic idea that the U.S. should NOT be the policemen of the world that insane? I don't think so.
Personally I'm not an isolationist or an old-school conservative, but perhaps people that are those things simply deserve a better spokesperson than Quiet Chris. I do think strict isolationism is a reasonable foreign policy that makes cogent points which thoughtful and intelligent people could believe in.

altho it's true that we don't always need to intervene, and there are times we have not, chris' contention that we shouldn't be involved in middle eastern goings on would be incorrect. his argument that it has always been a certain way over there, and that they are whackos who only care about religion is overly simplistic. ignoring the realities of the situation is a mistake.