Stay Out: Why Intervention Should Not Be America's Policy

摘要

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominate security discourse. With thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars spent, few issues merit more attention. Yet it is worthwhile to remember that these wars, like all wars, will end. And when they do, policy makers will come to terms with a harsh, albeit forgotten, reality: The ruling of distant peoples, as George Kennan so aptly put it, is not 'our dish.' The United States should steer clear of 'an acceptance of any sort of paternalistic responsibility to anyone, be it in the form of military occupation, if we can possibly avoid it, or for any period longer than is absolutely necessary.' Simply put, intervention might have been our fate, but it should not be our policy.