Jeff, you quote Stephen Walt, "The foreign policy community’s faith in US leadership assumed that the United States would almost always use its power wisely, but the past thirty years has cast considerable doubt on that assumption.
Jeff, I was born in 1949 and as I look back on US interventions around the globe during my life, and the catastrophes resulting from the majority of those interventions, I'm mystified as to how any foreign policy practitioner looking at the history, could possibly draw the conclusion that the USA would almost always use its power wisely.
You further quote Walt, "The recent histories of Argentina, Venezuela, and Great Britain remind us that bad government can do enormous damage even to countries with many advantages, and Americans may be about to experience something similar."
While Walt is certainly correct about the adverse effects of 14 years of tory government in Great Britain, and possibly, bad governments in Argentina, he neglects to inform his readers of the effects of US intervention in Venezuela since 2006 when the US placed trade sanctions on Venezuela following the election of the Chavez led socialist government. Since 2006 the USA has fomented civil uprisings and insurrections in Venezuela, enforced trade sanctions that severely effect the populace and the economy of the nation, yet the recalcitrant people continue to return socialist governments, now led by Nicolas Maduro.
An accurate history of the US intervention in Venezuela is documented in the book Corporate Coup written by investigative journalist Anya Parampil.
Iran, Cuba, The Congo, Palestine, Vietnam, Indonesia, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemmen, and Ukraine are some of the nations where the USA instigated regime change, or proxxy wars in the service of the US empire during my lifetime. During those seventy five years, the US has never won a war and has always adversely affected the inhabitants of the nations it chose to act in, always for the benefit of US corporations.
The final throes of the empire will be a dangerous time for the rest of the world, but if we avoid nuclear annihilation the world may be a better place.
Jeff, you quote Stephen Walt, "The foreign policy community’s faith in US leadership assumed that the United States would almost always use its power wisely, but the past thirty years has cast considerable doubt on that assumption.
Jeff, I was born in 1949 and as I look back on US interventions around the globe during my life, and the catastrophes resulting from the majority of those interventions, I'm mystified as to how any foreign policy practitioner looking at the history, could possibly draw the conclusion that the USA would almost always use its power wisely.
You further quote Walt, "The recent histories of Argentina, Venezuela, and Great Britain remind us that bad government can do enormous damage even to countries with many advantages, and Americans may be about to experience something similar."
While Walt is certainly correct about the adverse effects of 14 years of tory government in Great Britain, and possibly, bad governments in Argentina, he neglects to inform his readers of the effects of US intervention in Venezuela since 2006 when the US placed trade sanctions on Venezuela following the election of the Chavez led socialist government. Since 2006 the USA has fomented civil uprisings and insurrections in Venezuela, enforced trade sanctions that severely effect the populace and the economy of the nation, yet the recalcitrant people continue to return socialist governments, now led by Nicolas Maduro.
An accurate history of the US intervention in Venezuela is documented in the book Corporate Coup written by investigative journalist Anya Parampil.
Iran, Cuba, The Congo, Palestine, Vietnam, Indonesia, Chile, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemmen, and Ukraine are some of the nations where the USA instigated regime change, or proxxy wars in the service of the US empire during my lifetime. During those seventy five years, the US has never won a war and has always adversely affected the inhabitants of the nations it chose to act in, always for the benefit of US corporations.
The final throes of the empire will be a dangerous time for the rest of the world, but if we avoid nuclear annihilation the world may be a better place.