Infinite MonkeysRobb's rant below made me sad. In the first place, Robb, do you believe that we are at war or not? Your scare quotes suggest you don't believe it, so everything else you say is meaningless. And if you don't believe it, then I'd say your best bet is to go outside and admire the green sky and purple grass, or whatever the world you live in looks like. Sorry, that was harsh. Let me be more real--I was in New York in October 2001, and I smelled the burning rubble. We're at war.
If you do believe it, then all you are proposing is the tired ideas of isolationists of the past; the obvious analogy is that had we listened to those isolationists before, Europe would be Nazi or Communist now, and the Japanese military would rule Asia. A bit less obvious: you are suggesting building a Maginot Line or Great Wall. Both of those failed.
The sentence "Free countries fight defensive wars. Empires crush their potential enemies in order to keep the world under their thumb." is absurd, of course. Empires try to preserve what they have, and that's why they failed to deal with the threats of the 20th century so badly, and it took the United States to save them.
Posted by David at August 20, 2004 08:35 AM | TrackBack