So, this isn't going to be as much about Colin Powell, as much as it is the reaction to his death. My feed is being spammed with tons of people screaming he's a war criminal, and how he's evil and blah blah blah. Now, I'm going to be honest, I'm a bit more nuanced than either side on this mess. Like, I don't really agree with the far left on stuff, but I'm not a neocon either.
This is one of those areas where I don't have a strong opinion, and my opinion is fairly moderate. Like, to me, foreign policy is something I don't want to waste my time on. I tend to be isolationist in the sense that I don't want to get involved in everyone's BS, but at the same time, I kind of recognize we have to. So I'm isolationist in ideology, but a bit more interventionist in reality. This leads to me having opinions that don't fit in anywhere, except, ironically, the democratic party. Mainstream centrist democrats actually get it closest for me, where they generally don't get involved with foreign issues directly as much but at the same time, we need to defend our national interests involved, and maintain strategic relationships with other powers to offset those who threaten us and our power. I'm kind of a reluctant supporter of the American empire. I have a bit of a distaste for it, but at the same time I recognize if we don't act, we may end up losing ground to rival powers like Russia or China, and that would be worse for us, and potentially for everyone else involved. So, I tend to be more interventionist and supportive of our foreign policy than the left is, but I'm not as zealous as republicans and democrats.
That said where do I fit in? Well, here's the thing. My foreign policy was largely shaped by 9/11 and its aftereffects. I was at one point totally on Bush's side of believing that by invading countries we were bringing them freedom and democracy and they loved us with open arms, but after watching Iraq and Afghanistan and learning out history of interventionism in those regions, I can't say i'm anywhere near as supportive of that as I used to be. We kind of make our own problems, and invading countries seems to waste a lot of money, but not getting a lot done. And when we pull out later, everything goes to hell anyway. I don't in any way criticize Biden for the pullout, I totally agree with it, and I agreed with Obama pulling out of Iraq, and I do have a consequences be darned mentality to it. Why? because these are not conflicts we can win. Our military is good at going in and breaking stuff, but then we just occupy countries that dont want us there, and aren't willing to fight for themselves, and then they get taken over by natives who are fairly hostile to us anyway. So, why bother?
But at the same time, I'm not gonna scream that our actions were OMG WAR CRIMES AND THESE PEOPLE ARE SO TERRIBLE AND SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP IN FRONT OF THE HAGUE! I mean, are our actions crappy? Sure. Did these leaders make mistakes? Sure. In the case of the Bush administration, did they know they were making a mistake? probably. The thing about Bush is you never really know. Bush is a bit of a religious zealot who isn't super attached to reality, but I do believe his cabinet might have been more interested in natural resources. Bush also might have held a grudge against Hussein because Hussein spited his dad at every turn. That said the Iraq invasion did not seem very justifiable in retrospect, and Powell does share some blame.
Still, Powell seemed to be the most principled guy of the bunch, and was the one left holding the bag. So I do feel like he gets a bad rap. This doesnt exonerate his role in it but I believe he may have been a more honest actor than the rest of the Bush administration.
Anyway, these mistakes have made me largely anti interventionism, and largely anti war. Not in a hippie sort of way but in a "how does this really help us" sort of way. I see war like conservatives see liberal government, us doing a bunch of stuff with no clear result to people and I'd rather either want my tax dollars back, or spent on something else.
But at the same time, here's the thing. I understand the world isn't a nice place. That if we weren't in the rest of the world, Russia and China would, and that other countries would be exploiting the situation for themselves. America has always been an aggressive imperialist power for better or for worse. In some ways it's what made us great. From a 21st century leftist's perspective, Polk's land gains were actions of imperialism, but at the same time, owning the land we do made us the power we are today. We have the most temperate land from sea to shining sea and that makes us the undisputed big kid on the block in this part of the world. Given the relatively inferior land of Canada, Mexico, and South America, no one can compete in this hemisphere, and we've always been aggressive in shooing foreign powers out of this sphere of influence, lest we be challenged. Does this behavior sometimes have a negative effect on others? Sure. I dont make excuses for our exploitation in cuba, or supporting pinochet, etc., but I do understand that if we don't take strong stances toward foreign involvement here, it could weaken our geopolitical standing and threaten us and our way of life. So while my ideals lean a bit left, on a realism level, well, I believe in doing what we have to do. Same with our strategic relationships overseas. We need to support NATO to contain russia. We need to support South Korea, Japan, etc. to contain china and north korea. If we don't, these guys will take over these regions, people will suffer as much if not more than they do today, and we will be weaker for it. Foreign policy isn't really nice, and honestly, we can't always play nice like the left wants. I don't take any pleasure in this reality, I just understand it as it is. America needs to defend itself and its interests first, and while we should be as humane as possible in doing it, I'm not exactly going to argue against doing so. If we don't, Russia or China will, and we don't want them controlling the world. In a lot of ways, we've kind of built up the world economy and we police it so that it leads to positive effects for everyone. People can criticize capitalism, and you know what, justly, so, but at the same time, is whatever system Russia or China going to impose on people any better? I don't think so.
So, we're kind of caught in a bind, and that said, what does my actual foreign policy look like? Well, the Obama administration really. I was never dissatisfied with obama's foreign policy. He did some things I didn't like and got a bit too involved in some countries like Syria and Libya, but he got us out of Iraq, he didn't put American boots on the ground anywhere, and he got us out of more stuff than he got us into. People will complain about his drone strike policies, and stuff like that, but hey, beats Bush era invading people.
Why do I feel I need to say this? because this is an area in which i feel my ideals are poorly shared by anyone. Neocons have this shoot first and ask questions mentality, and also, screw everyone else. Bush for example was extremely anti UN and constantly snubbed them. Nah, we need multilateralism. And Trump just was like an immature child on foreign policy. He had no idea what he was doing, was largely handled by advisors, and ended up driving most of them away over time who just couldn't handle dealing with such a petty moron. At the same time, the left, if it had its way, would pull out of everything, which might sound good, until russia or china move in, and stuff destabilizes or turns against us due to the lack of our presence. We have enough supply chain issues as is, do we really want more? That could happen if America doesnt keep the global economy running smoothly. We could run into shortages of oil or other resources real quick if we don't control how things work overseas. People often hate us talking about how X country is sitting on top of a reserve of some in demand material, but honestly, if we don't have it, our way of life suffers. And if you want to stand on principle and argue for greatly reduced living standards as a result of a breakdown of global trade and access to materials, go right ahead, but I'd prefer not to do that. And idk, again, mainstream liberalism is a okay to me. It keeps things flowing and keeps a steady hand on things, but is more reserved and less interventionist than republicans. I would say Im maybe a bit left of obama as I do have some mild brands of left wing ideas in my thought process and I do believe we should strive to be as moral as humanly possible here. But at the same time, I'm not really a leftist, who seems way too obsessed with considering anyone who isn't morally pure a war criminal. Like, foreign policy is crappy. You're really getting in the dirt with that one. No one is clean in it and I really don't believe we can afford to be clean. It's natural selection, survival of the fittest out there, and we should maintain our advantage, lest we become victim of another country's foreign policy. That's literally how I see it, it's them or us, and I'd rather it not be us. Maybe in the distant future we could work toward resolving this but for now I have no answers other than trying to minimize our footprint and simply focus on maintaining rather than aggressively expanding. This means keep the relationships we have, try to strengthen them, but dont get involved in every regime change war we think MIGHT benefit us, but 30 years later probably won't. Again, I think the Obama administration is a good footprint here.
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