Damned If You Don’t

The American Left’s foundational foreign policy belief is that enmity toward the U.S. is the result of our interventions abroad. Therefore, the solution to problems overseas is simple: stop intervening. Capital-L libertarians often express or imply similar views. So I was struck by this nugget buried in a Reuters story about Mohammod Abdulazeez, the Chattanooga terrorist:

Abdulazeez’s friends said he returned from a trip to Jordan in 2014 concerned about conflicts in the Middle East and the reluctance of the United States and other countries to intervene. …

Abdulazeez’s friends, who asked not to be identified for fear of a backlash, said he was upset about the 2014 Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza and the civil war in Syria.

“He felt Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia were not doing enough to help, and that they were heavily influenced by the United States,” said the friend who received the text message.

The reality is that the United States, as the world’s leading nation and, until recently, its principal exponent of freedom and Western values, will be hated by totalitarians of all stripes no matter what we do–or don’t do.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses