That was a great post and I completely agree.

And just yesterday, I thought I was going to have to figure out how to block seeing your posts. I hate doing that (and I'm glad I put it off), because seeing the views of others is valuable. Like this time.

 

Thanks man
I always thought Dave was a reasonable guy, so I decided to hang the clown suit up for a night and give him a serious answer. I'm probably wrong anyway, but if I am, I'm sure someone will tell me why

 

I see the bring home of troops from places like Afghanistan and Iraq to be a double edged sword.

If we do bring them home, in the short run, I believe you will see the bad guys regroup and become a real pain in the **** to us. Whether it is more terror plots or whatever.

The reason they plot against us is because we do stick our nose in everyone's business.

We have the feeling that we can bring democracy to the world and they will love it. Sometimes we force it on them. On the other hand we are known for propping up some of the most brutal regimes over democracy to further our own interest as well.

The idea of American exceptionalism gets us into a lot of trouble. While it may be very patriotic, nationalism tends to make people feel invincible. There is a segment of our society that thinks we should just bomb the crap out of the rest of the world and control it for our own.

Our reality is that we have shook our economy up really bad by spending money we don't have for all of these military exercises. You don't see the Chinese throwing their money in the pot, do you? Well they loan us the money that we throw in but still...