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Sunday, March 27, 2011

An Old School Imperialist

Mark Steyn: 
I am by temperament and upbringing an old-school imperialist: There are arguments to be made for being on the other side of the world for decades on end if you're claiming it as sovereign territory and rebuilding it in your image, as the British did in India, Belize, Mauritius, the Solomon Islands, you name it. Likewise, there are arguments to be made for saying, sorry, we're a constitutional republic, we don't do empire. But there's not a lot to be said for forswearing imperialism and even modest cultural assertiveness, and still spending 10 years getting shot up in Afghanistan helping to create, bankroll and protect a so-called justice system that puts a man on death row for converting to Christianity.
And there you have the problem with America's intervention beyond its borders. Hawaii is good example. It's a state of the Union even though its thousands of miles away. Check out its history.

It takes generations, not years, to create a democratic society where one did not exist before.

1 comment:

thisishabitforming said...

The problem with Afghanistan is that unless you change the culture it will never change and we are not willing to change the culture. So no matter what we do the Taliban/Al Qaeda will continue to be a threat. But does it really matter because the Muslim Brotherhood is in the process of taking over the entire Middle East with our help, wittingly or un, anyway.