By now you have heard a US military contractor was killed and several US servicemen were wounded in Syria by an Iranian backed militia. The War Street Journal’s editorial, “Biden’s Failed Deterrence in Syria,” blasts Biden for not undertaking a more deadly response even though our military bombed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps sites.
The WSJ editorial is a must read because it reveals the stupidity of American foreign policy and quotes the leading warmonger in the Senate, Lindsay Graham, best bud of the late warmonger John McCain.
This incident begs the questions: Why are US troops in Syria? What are America’s national interests in Syria? When did Congress pass a declaration of war against Syria? How will the American people benefit from our military been involved in another protracted Middle East conflict? How does our foreign policy promote democracy, liberty, and prosperity at home?
The military-industrial complex—which President Eisenhower warned the American people in his televised address--and bullshit geopolitics have dominated US foreign policy for decades, and is based on a British geographer’s “Heartland Theory.” I first learned about Mackinder’s theory when I took a political geography course (Hunter College, spring 1967, where I was a history major and a geography minor).
(As Eisenhower asserted: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.)
Yes, there are criticisms of the heartland theory, but we cannot deny the following.
The United States has fought undeclared wars since 1945 on the Korea peninsula, Vietnam (southeast Asia), Iraq and Afghanistan, Serbia, Syria, and the proxy war in Ukraine.
What do all these regions have in common? They are on the rim of the heartland. The US policy of containment targets our supposed “enemies”—Russia and China—and apparently are the targets of neoconservatives who advocated regime change for several countries in their 1997 blueprint.
The neoconservatives dominate American foreign policy, and it is time for “regime change” in DC. We need to drive the warmongers so far away for the nation’s capital they would have a hard time returning to the levers of power. Banish them to the farthest jungles would be the least we should advocate.
But as George Washington warned us more than 200 years ago, America should avoid foreign entanglements among other policies that would be harmful for the new nation.
In the meantime, anyone in the Biden administration, members of Congress who advocate military intervention across the globe, and their sycophants in the media must immediately enroll their children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews in the military and request they be deployed to Syria, Ukraine, and other hotspots.
Let’s see how quickly they are willing to put their loved ones in harm way for the dubious national security mantra they have been spewing for decades.
Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.