THE ATTACKS of 9/11 brought us a decade of war with the seemingly endless and bloody occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan — the most intensive period of US military deployments in our history. But, we may now be entering a decade of diplomacy as we learn that military power is not always the answer for many of the difficult problems ahead.
That was just one of the major insights from last weekend’s citizen-led Camden Conference, which I moderated this year. Legions of local volunteers succeeded in attracting academics, journalists, and former government officials to cold and snowy Camden on the Maine coast in the middle of February. More than 900 people filled Camden’s venerable 19th-century Opera House and theaters linked to it in Rockland, Belfast, and Ellsworth to debate war and peace in the Middle East. What I heard consistently was the need for the United States to find a way to negotiate with and outwit our adversaries rather than fight them.
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Thank you Mr. Burns for this plug for diplomacy over military force. Let's hope Secretary Kerry applies the "golden rule" over the "self interest rule" abroad. He could redeem himself and possibly the US.
You are really laughable! John (left-wing) Kerry doing our bidding for foreign policy!!! Help me Mr Kerry i'm stuck in Iraq!!!!! Our very best from Harvard! pardon me while I condescend to your idea of diplomacy. I suppose we should would have used diplomacy when 9/11 happened? Thank God George Bush was president on 9/11 not Mr. Incompetent Obama!! Duh! What do I do?? Diplomacy?
Well Mr G-Doodle, your nuanced and reasonable comment has made me re-think my liberal tendencies. From now on I shall be a certified reactionary, by golly. Bombs away!
The Pax Americana was a long time neo-con dream that drove the current debt crisis. Neither neo-cons nor those on the far right however are willing to admit that. Neither does it seem that anyone wants to look at the gradually dropping expenditures related to these conflicts chipping away at the short term debt. One can only hope that as the US public goes through its usual political gyrations of just picking a party out of how they feel at the moment that the fundamental approach to foreign policy by the US has been permanently changed.
You write a lot, but nothing makes sense. Ergo...you are a far-left lib. Take a break will ya?
Sorry you don't know the difference between "liberal and "conservative" and middle of the road. You write a lot and it is always far right nonsense. So why don't you try some objectivity and give the rest of us a break.
Diplomacy is fine, but it must be based on knowledge. At this point in our history the biggest threat we face is from resurgent Islam. Islam on the march. We not only have done nothing to increase our knowledge about the true nature of the Islamic threat we don't even have a knowledge base on which to build. Moreover, there exists within our government, academic and media institutions a deliberate and systematic PC based effort to squash any attempt to gain any meaningful understanding of what we are up against. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, author of the book "Willful Blindness" which is about his experiences prosecuting the bombers in the first World Trade Center attack wrote an article on the 20th anniversary of that attack [Feb 26] In his article he said "Despite serial atrocities, thousands of deaths, and a decade of war, we are today more willfully blind to the reason why we were attacked than we were back in 1993." He added "We've gone from willful blindeness to coerced silence."
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I recall the Marshall Plan as a bold and quick reaction to an immediate crisis utilizng emergency measures to prevent starvation within an isolated Berlin. It was a humane military action using military forces to fight starvation. It was not an act of diplomacy. Diplomacy, if any, may have emerged later.
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You're confusing the Marshall Plan with the Berlin Airlift. The Marshall Plan was developed to helping conquered countries start to get back on their feet. The Berlin Airlift was necessary when the Soviets blockaded the roads from West Germany to Berlin against treaty.
It's sad to think about all the money that was wasted on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as all the lives lost on both sides. Let's hope that the neo-cons (Dick Cheney, for example, who's been forging policy since thre Reagan administration), which have had a strong say in the direction of this country since the Cold War with their quest for world domination, can be overcome by diplomacy. There's too much of a need for investment in this country. There's too many lives that have been shattered by senseless deaths and injury.
Quest for world domination?
Good luck using diplomacy with Iran and North Korea. You can't reason with madmen.
Mad men. Likening about WMDs. Starting a warboasted on lies. Still living about it. Yep Bush and Cheney are mad men. You too because you buy this BS. It would take us 5 minutes to while korea and Iran off the face of the earth so stop whining like a baby in a crib.
Put down the bong and try typing again.