surveyor: I would also think that staying away from certain terminology would also help. The word “neocon” is used as both a pejorative and a conversation stopper. Conversely, “Leftie” or “Left” is used the same way. As far as the latter term goes, I will be the first to admit that I don’t use this term kindly, unlike the word “liberal”.
I don’t think diplomacy or negotiation are bad things. To the contrary, I fully subscribe to von Clausewitz’s notion that diplomacy and war fall at different points on the same continuum. Neville Chamberlain is indicative of “appeasement”, which is a very different thing from diplomacy. When he met with Hitler in Munich in 1938, it was to prevent war from breaking out in Europe. Hitler had been having his way and there was no reason to think this would be any different. My point is that both parties went into the meeting expecting very different things and, ironically, both came out of the meeting thinking that they had prevailed.
I don’t think engagement with Iran is a bad thing, but without any sort of military options to back up the discussions, nothing of substance will happen. The Iranians know this, hence their contemptuous dismissal of negotiations to this point.
The European track record is none too good, and I am not speaking historically, but rather over the last 15 – 20 years. The UN, NATO and the CSCE (the European security collective) all dithered while the Serbs ethnically cleansed the Balkans. Using that situation as an example, it was the believable threat and application of force that brought that to a close. I use the term “believable” because the threats to use force up to that point were not believable.
If you step back and look at multilateral interventions over the last 15 to 20 years, you don’t find a lot of successes that you can point out where the UN functioned as its mandate dictates. Individual efforts to engage have fared no better.
So we come back to a muscular, unilateral US policy of intervention where our national interests are either threatened or at risk. And by national interests, I include commerce and business interests. Let’s be clear on this: We have created a standard of living that demands global supplies to keep it efficiently running. Is it right to conduct business this way? I am not going to opine on the morality of it, but things are the way they are. Our interests dictate our policy and we behave accordingly.
