I’ve come to the conclusion that right-wing-whackos are like born-again Christians, even if they have no religious inclination. They live in a faith-based world where reason and facts doesn’t matter. And just as I am fascinated by born-again believers, wondering why otherwise intelligent humans being can believe in a god who commands his followers to engage in ritual cannibalism in remembrance of his only son, whom he sent from heaven to earth on a suicide mission to save the humans he himself created, from an eternity in a lake of fire for not loving him enough, I am fascinated by some of those on the right.
The other night I spoke with an otherwise intelligent friend who is well-educated in the sciences and well-versed in history. He is not apparently religious, nor is he socially conservative, one or both of which are often characteristics of right-wing-whackodom. He is a recently reborn fiscal conservative, having lost that portion of his faith during the profligate Bush years, only to regain it after the election of Obama. But in one area, his faith has never wavered: American exceptionalism and its rightful hegemony over the rest of the world. In his view, America is under constant threat; from the Koreans, the Iranians, the Syrians, the Chinese, the Pakistanis, and just to prove he’s not a racist, the Russians. Military spending is never enough, even though US spending is more than the rest of the world combined. Talking with your adversaries doesn’t work; only military muscle is effective in dealing with those who threaten us. Traditional diplomacy has no place in international relations. It is only a sign of weakness. And if you ever happen to capture someone who might not be with us, torture that person, because torture, like military might, is the only thing the infidel understands.
He recommends bombing North Korea and Iran, and throws Syria on to the list for good measure. And he’s serious! What happens after that he doesn’t know for sure, but the bombing will teach them a well-needed and long overdue lesson. Next up, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I suppose.
I just don’t understand his paranoid worldview. None of those countries are in any way an existential threat to the USA. North Korea apparently has primitive nuclear weapons, but has no way to deliver them, except perhaps on a container ship to Seattle. (Yikes!!) Fat lot of good the missile defense system will be in that case. Iran wants nuclear power, and maybe nuclear weapons, but who can blame them? In spite of all their oil, they don’t have enough refining capacity for their own use, and have to import gasoline. They need an alternative source of energy because their oil reserves are rapidly declining, and the ayatollahs are smart enough to know that. As for nuclear weapons, maybe they do want them. Look what happened to their neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan, who didn’t have them. Look what hasn’t happened to Korea, their Axis of Evil partner, who has them.
In the right-wing-whacko and religious fundamentalist worldview, there is a simple answer to every complex problem. Bomb it or crush it, and throw in a little torture for good measure. I’m not saying that Korea and Iran are friendly and rational players on the world scene, but I don’t see how bombs fix anything. Any bombing of North Korea would almost certainly result in a retaliatory invasion of South Korea, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. And what about China, North Korea’s only ally in the world? What would their reaction be? Kim Jong Il and his strange Stalinist regime can’t last forever. Maybe we can just muddle through until it collapses under the weight of its own weirdness and South Korea starts building Hyundais in Pyongyang.
As for Iran, all reports indicate that Iran’s populace is getting tired of the ayatollahs and want better relations with the West. I think that all a few bombs will do is drive popular sentiment straight to the ayatollahs. Saddam Hussein wasn’t exactly popular among Iraqis, but American soldiers weren’t exactly greeted with flowers either. And the Iranians do have some power that American bombs won’t be able to counter. They have missiles that can reach Israel, and/or they can use some low technology (like pulling a plug) to sink a few ships to block the Straits of Hormuz, shutting off a huge chunk of the world’s oil supply for years. What then?
There aren’t any easy answers to these problems, or any of the world’s problems for that matter, but throwing gasoline on a fire is no way to put it out. Obama is not the world’s messiah, but even if he doesn’t have all the right answers, I don’t think he’ll choose answers that will certainly make matters worse.
Those with faith in God or American exceptionalism should have had their faith shaken by now. Their easy and bloody answers don’t work.
Maybe it’s time to realize the limits of American power and give muddling, with a good dose of reason, a chance.
Ps. Tonight I’m going to see Andrew Bacevich give a talk at Town Hall. He is a thoughtful and very conservative writer (and retired Army colonel) who realizes the limits of power. His book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, is one of the best books I’ve ever read on the subject. I highly recommend it.
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