Re: Fires of revolution sweep the Aran World
Because the terms "pragmatic" and "meaningful" are subjective, perhaps we should take a moment to define these terms in order to have the same understanding of the intended goal.
Most will claim that "pragmatic" means "what works" but without outlining a specific goal for a specific situation, the concept of "what works" is entirely subjective. The same is true for what is "meaningful", we need to establish the specific goal associated with the specific situation to understand the envisioned result in the context of the situation.
I'll be more specific in showing the problem I have in understanding your use of the terms "pragmatic" and "moral" in regards to your examples:
Somalia, the humanitarian mission to save millions from starvation was a complete success while our attempts at nation building were a miserable failure. If feeding starving people was the morally correct decision, we accomplished that mission. In that context, our morally correct decision was also the pragmatic decision, it worked. However, if you consider the decision to nation build in Somalia to be our morally correct decision, obviously that failed, and therefore was not a "pragmatic" endeavor.
It's my opinion that we shouldn't give Egypt (or any other country) taxpayer funded aid, which includes financial and military support.
As for the peace treaty with Israel, I have no problem with using diplomatic measures to encourage peaceful relations between the countries but that does not mean we should pay Egypt protection money in hopes they will not attack Israel.
NP is the realm of the UN and it is not unilaterally enforced by the US. Can you give me an example of the US acting completely alone and outside of UN authorization to enforce or prevent NP?
Our economy runs on oil. Unrest in the ME creates price spikes in the oil futures markets. These spikes have potentially devestating effects on our oil based economy. Therefore the stability of the ME is important to US interests as the region is one of the largest suppliers of the worlds oil.
Would you disagree with any of that? Is there some other reason you would like to add as to why that region is of importance to the US?
Please outline what you see as "American interests" concerning the ME and be specific. For example, if you say "stability" in the ME is part of our American interests, then offer specifics as to why.
