re: #520 Dark_Falcon

I didn’t say that 2nd sentence, nor did I imply it. Blowback has to be risked at times. Where US policy often fails is in the need for planning to avert blowback and then executing said plans.

Your approach oozes with unintended consequence and short-term thinking. It’s the kind of thinking that led Administrations of both parties to do things that ‘made sense at the time’ and left horrible consequences we’re still cleaning up.

We supported the Shah in Iran because we thought it was in our interest despite the fact that he was a brutal despot. How’d that work out for us?

Then we supported Saddam Hussein against Iran after supporting the Shah blew up in our faces. How’d THAT work out for us?

Again and again and again, this short term, “In our interest” thinking actually worked AGAINST our interest, just as surely as it had always been against our stated principles, and now it’s hard to find a country whose population takes us seriously when we speak of our principles.

It’s popular on your team to speak of American Exceptionalism, yet everything they espouse in Foreign Policy is completely unexceptional. Instead, its standard fare for every nation that has enough power to force its will on other, weaker countries. The ease with you suggest tossing Gulen to the wolves because its ‘in our interest’ speaks of no principle beyond immediate advantage with no care for the consequences.