What Isolationism? Andrew Bacevich - Huffington Post

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What Isolationism? (5 comments )
READ MORE: Iraq, 2006, George W. Bush
Huffington Post

"In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush worked himself into a lather about the dangers of "retreating within our borders." His speech bulged with ominous references to ostensibly resurgent isolationists hankering to "tie our hands" and leave "an assaulted world to fend for itself." Turning inward, the president cautioned, would provide "false comfort" because isolationism inevitably "ends in danger and decline."


But who exactly are these isolationists eager to pull up the drawbridges? What party do they control? What influential journals of opinion do they publish? Who are their leaders? Which foundations bankroll this isolationist cause?

The president provided no such details, and for good reason: They do not exist. Indeed, in present-day American politics, isolationism does not exist. It is a fiction, a fabrication and a smear imported from another era.

Isolationism survives in contemporary American political discourse because it retains utility as a cheap device employed to impose discipline. Think of it as akin to red-baiting -- conjuring up bogus fears to enforce conformity in the realm of foreign policy. In that regard, the beleaguered Bush, his standing in public opinion polls tumbling, is by no means the first president to sound the alarm about supposed isolationists subverting American statecraft.

.....SNIP"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-bacevich/what-isolationism_b_15060.html

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1. And really, Neocon policy of undoing multilateral treaties like Kyoto,

the International Criminal Court & the power of the UN ... is more isolationist that anything else of late.

So is the idea of American Empire.

It is not possible to not be a part of the world these days. The only choice is what type of partner are you.

If you burn bridges and threaten - and isolate countries such as Venezuela - how are you anything but insular?

This is just another idea Bush WH is doing the opposite of.