What Makes America So Prone to Intervention?

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/09/what-makes-america-so-prone-to-intervention/279393/

A conversation with Stanley Hauerwas, pacifist theologian, on Syria and why "humanitarianism" is a red herring.


***SNIP


You're often identified as a Christian pacifist. Why should a secular nation listen to Christians, and why should a nation state listen to the arguments of pacifists?

My way of putting it is that Christians are called to live nonviolently not because we believe nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but in a world of war as faithful followers of Christ we cannot imagine being anything other than nonviolent.

That doesn't mean in any way that we withdraw from the world, but rather we want to serve our Christian and non-Christian brothers and sisters as much as possible by trying to find ways to live cooperatively in a manner that does not need to resort to violence.

To think however that we can give you a nonviolent foreign policy is just not going to be the case. Because we first of all don't think about what we would do if we were president. We worry about how in the world as faithful followers of Christ we ever ended up being president! But that doesn't mean we're not trying to find ways for both Christians and non-Christians to live lives with as little violence as possible.

[annabanana]

1. It is run by plutocrats. That's why. . . . n/t

[newfie11]

2. +1

[99Forever]

3. It's the excuse empires use to...

... subjugate other nations and rob their own people.

[CBGLuthier]

4. Like every other business, once in a while america gets overstocked and needs to move some product

Since our entire economy is really based upon the production of death at all scales, bullets, missiles, bombers, every once in a while the companies that make these things need to have a clearance sale.

[wilt the stilt]

5. It is a result of the world wars

We entered both wars late and there has always been an isolationist felling in this country. It was the stance of the republicans before ww2. Since then we have taken a very proactive role as we assumed the position of the most powerful country in the world. Sometimes for humanitarian purposes it may be called for but many in this country this has been abused that position for personal gain. The republicans have used this tactic to insure power. They almost always have a military action in their first term and this whips up war fever and "patriotism".

I do believe Obama is not doing this. This is a very complicated situation and chemical weapons are a complete no no.

[KG]

6. this country is only theoretically 'secular'. when it comes to killing, the followers of the

prince of peace fall all over themselves to get their war on. pretty funny considering how violent they consider islam to be.

[xchrom]

8. indeed. i've always found as a 'follower' my self - the 2 are incompatible.

if the quote in the bible about serving 2 masters were rewritten for americans -- it might be you cannot serve god and war.

[sendero]

7. Trying to control resources..

..... (oil/gas) and maintain the dollar as the worlds reserve currency.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. I'm not a currency expert but as a layman I thought the dollar was popular because it's strong.

I know the Euro was supposed to be the in currency but it's flailing.

[sendero]

13. It's strong because oil is traded for dollars..

.... soon before Iraq was invaded Saddam announced he wanted something else besides dollars for his oil.

Russia and China, big players in the energy world, have both made noises about trading for other than dollars.

I could be wrong but I think that this is what all of this is really about. And I think that the days when the dollar is the only medium of exchange is drawing to an end.

This is not necessarily about using the Euro or any other particular currency. All of the worlds currencies are manipulated tremendously and the strength of the dollar is in question when the issuing nation has the kind of debt load we have accumulated over the last couple of decades especially.

I don't claim to be a "currency expert" either. But I do know this - the strength of a currency is rooted in CONFIDENCE. And confidence is hard to maintain when a currency is clearly debased. It didn't work for Ethiopia or Argentina, and at some point it won't work for us either.

[HereSince1628]

9. When a nation's biggest investment is the military, every problem is a military confrontation

But even globally supreme we cannot be satisfied. Fear that others may counter our military might (Syria might use chemical weapons on us or our friends!) torments our leaders.

We are just human, and famous fiction has been written about this aspect of human nature.

To be supreme, you need an ever greater spying activity so that you have total awareness (just like the all seeing eye in Mordor?).

Supremacy demands an ever greater capacity to project military might to match ever growing capacity to fear shadows.

It is a cognitive and behavioral vortex of mythic proportion and we are trapped within it. From within it all things look threatening.

Hunger for the security becomes a self-consuming priority. We starve ourselves to care for it, thus consuming our own livers and we are hollowed out by our feast.

It turns once great compassionate leaders into wraiths who are turned to serve the interests of POWER.

Because Power Is Precious.

[madrchsod]

10. 'from the halls of montezuma to the shores of tripoli"

1801 barbary coast.....

i agree with stanley and unfortunately our leaders do not.

[SoCalDem]

12. We make LOTS of weapons.. We are an arrogant nation

Our military trains & trains, and of course every now and then, they WILL want to USE those weapons and that training..

and

when they use up stuff & break other stuff, it means producers get to make more and sell the government the fancy new ones.. (for more money of course..)

rinse & repeat