The Cross Roads of Civilization, the description of the Middle East, is the oldest historical phrase I remember from childhood. Nothing much has changed except that trade and war are done with more modern means.
The Irani people are about to find out that they are on their own like Hungarians were back in 1956. The linked video describes the events of the past half century, how we got here. The Realpolitik outcome was to be expected.
Uh Oh… The Real Reason Trump Cancelled The Strike on Iran is Worse Than You Think…
This episode argues that America’s Gulf “allies” are no longer behaving like allies. Meira K walks you through the hidden architecture behind President Trump’s last-minute stand-down, laying out a provocative thesis that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE pressured Washington by restricting airspace access and, in Qatar’s case, limiting the use of a U.S. base…not out of love for Tehran, but out of fear of what regime change would do to their economies and their China-backed hedges.
Did Eisenhower make a mistake when he decided not to send troops to Hungary? Was he wrong not to support France and Britain when Egypt took over the Suez Canal?
This was a different time. He was careful to avoid military conflict. Seemed to prefer diplomacy. Ended Korean War. Avoided Berlin airlift. Got more respect from the Soviet Union—especially Stalin.
Wrong questions! America acted for its own interests which is not a mistake, it’s policy..
Right question. Should smaller countries rely on America? Israel and Ukraine are doing the right thing, protecting themselves as they should. It’s policy. Good policy.
Sometimes doing the right thing for others turns out to be the right thing for oneself.
The US, in helping rebuild Europe and providing the shield against the interncine warfare that plagued that continent for thousands of years, developed (for itself) a terrific customer base for its products and technologies, and created the conditions for its own wealth.
By forcing them to rearm and pitting them against one another the eventual outcome of the current foreign mischief may very well be negative - in a host of ways. Most obviously, we are making ourself the bad guy. Nobody likes dealing with the bad guy. Additionally, we risk fracturing a greater whole into competition fiefdoms, each with different rules and wonts, making it harder for large US firms to work with them or penetrate their markets.
We are refracturing the world in ways we cannot foresee, perhaps cannot even imagine. It is unlikely to be better, it is certainly easy to think of it as worse.
I don’t see the US hegemon of the past 75 years as negative in any sense. Yes, we’ve spent more on NATO than they have. OK. We’ve also dominating world commerce, economics, culture, and politics to a degree unimagined in any time in history - including the Roman Empire or any other you might mention.
Yes! But which was the motivation, altruism or self interest? When both are in sync it’s wonderful!
I didn’t post to criticize America but to highlight the smaller powers’ conundrum. Do they want to be at the mercy of the superpower? How well did the Pacific Cargo Cult islanders fare?
America established the Marshall Plan for Europe but there was no such aid to the Pacific Cargo Cult islanders where America built the runways to defeat Japan. Why not? Because the islanders were no longer of interest.
The Captain
Richard Feynman on Cargo Cult Science
I think the educational and psychological studies I mentioned are examples of what I would like to call Cargo Cult Science. In the South Seas there is a Cargo Cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they’ve arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas—he’s the controller—and they wait for the airplanes to land. They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn’t work. No airplanes land. So I call these things Cargo Cult Science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential, because the planes don’t land.
The four countries mentioned were major players. Had the islands with Cargo Culture received similar aid they would not have developed the Cargo Culture.
My point is that America was defending its own interests over and above altruism. As I said above, when the two coincide it’s wonderful.
