Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreadnought
Good Post Zemco. Most dont realize that this started long ago before Bush. But since he is the sitting U.S. President most like to point the finger at him.
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I think people generally have a difficult time differentiating foreign policy and geo-strategy.
Geo-strategy is planned and implemented by career bureaucrats who are in Washington 20, 25, 30, or even 40 years. No country can be successful if it allows a "temporary employee" breezing through every 4 to 8 years to set geo-strategy.
The capital investment in time, money, resources and personnel to establish a geo-strategic policy is tremendous and you can't keep jumping from Asia to Africa to the ME, to South America, back to the ME, back to Asia, then back to the ME every 4 to 8 years. The list of countries that tried that and failed is long and distinguished.
Whether one is for or against the US, you have to view its geo-strategy objectively, and in that regard, the US has done exactly what it needs to do exactly when it needs to do it (for the most part). Sure, there's some flaws, but that's to be expected. There are some foreign policy areas the US really screwed up that would have made it easier to attain its geo-strategic objectives, like Iran, Afghanistan before 9-11 (the US had a golden opportunity when Daud came to power in 1974), and it should have paid more attention to Pakistan between 1947 and 1979, but overall the US has done well.
The US is locked into its current geo-strategy for the time being. If someone can offer a viable alternative to the current US strategy, then I'd like to see it, because I don't believe there is one, at least not one that Joe & Jane American would be willing to accept.
The Russians have been equally brilliant in their efforts to thwart US goals and objects, and we'll find out how successful those actions were over the next 10 years or so.
The Chinese have also made some excellent plays, so no one will be suffering from a lack of entertaining hair-pulling tension in the coming years.
Iran is the next logical move for the US, and if it fails, then I think it would be best to shift its foreign policy in furtherance of its geo-strategy to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and play the Baluchistan card.