Stay Out: Why Intervention Should Not Be America's Policy

Abstract

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominate security discourse. With thousands of lives lost and billions of dollars spent, few issues merit more attention. Yet it is worthwhile to remember that these wars, like all wars, will end. And when they do, policy makers will come to terms with a harsh, albeit forgotten, reality: The ruling of distant peoples, as George Kennan so aptly put it, is not "our dish." The United States should steer clear of "an acceptance of any sort of paternalistic responsibility to anyone, be it in the form of military occupation, if we can possibly avoid it, or for any period longer than is absolutely necessary." Simply put, intervention might have been our fate, but it should not be our policy.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA501228

Entities

People

  • B. C. Saltzman
  • James W. Forsyth Jr.

Organizations

  • Air University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Failed States
  • Foreign Policy
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • International Security
  • Intervention
  • National Security
  • Political Science
  • Security
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • United States Africa Command
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Educational Psychology
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.