Kondor3
Cafeteria Centrist
Generally speaking, American citizens are not war-lovers; quite the contrary.
At worst, many (most?) Americans have become numbed by America's constant 'World Policeman' role since the end of WWII, in which we oftentimes find ourselves the only Cop willing (or, in the first decade or two after WWII, the only Cop able) to confront the Bad Guys, as well as a couple of ill-advised preemptive military adventures.
We do an excellent job of Nation Building when we burn an enemy all the way down to the ground, as may be seen with Germany and Japan, but we have a terrible track record in attempts at Nation Building, when we have not beaten the enemy down into a submissive and prostrate behavior, first, so that we may fill the vacuum with our own mindset.
The Americanization of both Germany and Japan worked fairly well - providing both with a healthy portion of Western or American -style democratic processes and traditions, while preserving the best of their old ways and respecting their uniqueness.
Unfortunately, many of our Interventions since WWII have involved backwards - even savage, sometimes - cultures and populations - who simply aren't ready for the mindset of Individualism and political and personal Independence and who oftentimes simply don't want what we're trying to adapt and foist upon them.
We need to be more selective in our overseas military adventures, and undertake fewer of them, and for better reasons, and we need to avoid even trying to Nation-Build, after a rumble, in most instances.
When we DO decide to commit to military intervention, we need to take the gloves off, go in and slaughter the Bad Guys in huge and decisively punishing numbers, then walk away, and let them fix their own broken country - at least beyond the realm of some very temporary humanitarian relief to avoid starvation or similar catastrophic impact upon the populace.
We do far more Good in the world than we do Bad, in the final analysis, but the ratio has slipped in recent decades, and we need to work on improving that ratio, once again.
Our boys and girls in our military volunteer to do our Nation's bidding, and trust to us, The People, to see that they are not mis-used or mis-spent, from time to time.
So far, in recent decades, we've been doing a pretty shitty job of that.
The American People would be better served if We The People figured-out a better way to hold our leaders' feet to the fire, in ensuring that our Military is better used.
Or so it seems to this observer.
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