US Foreign Policy (1960-Now):

[Advocate]

I'm not averse to having a serious discussion of United States foreign policy under the Obama administration. But that discussion will require a serious reevaluation of all of our foreign policy behavior dating back to the beginning of the Cold War.

And I don't believe for a second that Yoshi or any of the other conservatives on this board have an interest in that discussion. All Yoshi seems to care about is a perpetuation of the same "red team blue team" BS that has enveloped this country in paralysis for the past twenty years.

This was brought up in the Obama Presidency thread. I know I'm not the best person to talk about it, but I think we all should have an honest discussion.

[Josh]

I'm in for watching the world burn.

[dog$]

I'd stretch the period of consideration to post World War 2, as it seems like that was the beginning of all US branches trying to figure out and stretch out how much they could do worldwide.

US action in Korea and Iran during the 1950s wasn't particularly good, and in moving on from there I have difficulty thinking of US foreign actions which were actually beneficial - outside of a few things like the Marshall Plan.

[Yoshi]

The options are too narrow. Foreign policy should benefit us, be fair/advantageous to our allies (e.g. UK, Japan, and Israel), and preferably also undermine our enemies. How it benefits us could take tons of forms from general spreading of democracy to more specific strategic gain.

This is why apologizing to anyone who isn't listed above should be off the table, as an example.

[Diff-chan]

Our foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster since the end of World War 2.

edit: outside of the Marshall Plan, which we would never do again.

[Doc Holliday]

There is this belief that WWII brought us out of the depression. Whether it did or not, the fact stands we we're attacked by a major world power and the need to defend ourselves to survive was clear and present. There has not been that since. Yet due to my first point, efforts have been put in place to commercialize our military and sell threats to our public to grow and expand to help our economy at a moral cost. So my opinion is yes post WWII US foreign policy has been destructive to our neighbors, but not nearly as destructive as it is to ourself. We did 9/11, like it or not.

[dave is ok]

America's foreign policy is basically:

1. Throw money at it

Did that fix problem? NO ------> Throw more money at it.

[Fe 26]

The pentagon papers are another worthwhile read in regards to the op topic.

[Yoshi]

America's foreign policy is basically:

1. Throw money at it

Did that fix problem? NO ------> Throw more money at it.

This is Washington's policy with regard to everything. It's a major reason they shouldn't be doing much of anything.

[Fe 26]

throw money at it or ban things

zero actual leadership