I'm not sure that Doug's speculations are wholly incompatible with the arguments Carl & I put forward. For one thing, I would be willing to acknowledtge an ad hoc quality to u.s. foreign policy, and I would not myself use the phrase "grand strategy." I'm not sure than any nation eer has has such a thing. But I do think that within the nationnal power elites there has been a fairly consistent view over the last 60 years that the u.s. needs to maintain 'discipline' in the Middle East. And that certainly would involve various ad hoc decistions that would then generate some of the traps Doug identifies. Maintaining "creditibility" played a lare role in the Vietnam adventure.
Car5oo
Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Jun 25, 2010, at 1:46 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
>
> > At 06:01 AM 6/25/2010, Carrol Cox wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Think of "keeping a friendly climate for business" (not just U.S.
> >> business but world business). Think of the threat to that business
> >> climate by serious chaos in the Middle East & South Asia, and of how
> >> vital Middle-East oil is for the whole global economy.
> >
> >
> > So how does creating serious chaos meet that goal?
>
> Maybe Carrol and Carl are right and there is some grand strategy
> behind all this. But it could be that after 9/11 Bush "had" to get
> revenge (if you believe OBL & AQ were based in Afg, etc. - if you
> think Dick Cheney did it, stop reading now). And once there, the U.S.
> couldn't leave without damaging its "credibility." Then Obama
> campaigned on escalating Afg because it was a way to make him look
> tougher than Bush, and now that he's done it, he's stuck. Grand
> strategy or no, both this war and the one in Iraq have done a lot of
> damage to the U.S. - trillions in debt and less foreign regard for
> both U.S. soft and hard power - with no visible gains. I don't know,
> but maybe it's to give the ruling class too much credit to assume
> there's a big picture behind everything they do.
>
> Doug
>
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