Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Codevilla on Empire

For those who seek a comprehensive overview of foreign policy and America’s role in the world today, I recommend Angelo Codevilla’s article, “Some Call It Empire.” He discusses areas that are generally beyond my focus and expertise. In a single article he describes and considers the views of Schlesinger, Muravchik, Buchannan, Colin Gray, Odom, Niall Ferguson, Ivan Eland, and others. Codevilla, whom William Buckley, Jr. calls a super-hawk, only hints at his position in the last three paragraphs. Agree or not, his review is informative and worth considering.

posted by Jason Pappas at 4:48 PM

2 Comments:

Blogger unaha-closp said...

As his summation:

President Bush's reaction to the events of September 11 further muddied America's understanding of our relationship with the world. He could have addressed the fact that Arabs had struck America on behalf of causes espoused, and embodied, by a number of Arab regimes. He could have declared that in doing so these regimes had put themselves in a state of war with the American people—and he could have proceeded to undo our foes, regime by regime. That war would have left many enemies dead and many potential ones eager to avoid the experience. That, and that alone, is true peace.

He yearns for this doesn't he? He describes it as ideal to enforce a clear peace by an overwhelming show of force. But he knows there is no way this is going to happen, due to the structure of America and the need for this structure to advance itself (pragmatic advancement).

I think he is wrong in this conclusion:
That, and that alone, is true peace.
To achieve victory all you need to do is beat the other guy. It does not reqire the enemy to be smashed or awed into submission all that is needed is sufficient force. The wars in Central America were play wars where America acted imperially by proxy and without the much effort. A simple low cost approach to the regimes that cause problems could be made - British Imperial modus operandi - with real results.

12/7/05, 11:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The last three paragraphs are the only thing worth reading, and they are awesome.

12/11/05, 9:45 PM  

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