This just in: good news from Iraq

[Preechr]

Once upon a time in Indonesia, Muslims were generally regarded as the least problematic of the various religious groups found in the many diverse cultures contained therein. Nothing like the "Mohammedism" practiced back in the Arabic western nations. Something happened that changed all that, and since that something that happened, Indonesian Islam has become more and more fanatical to the point that violence is commonplace and Indonesia, home to the largest population of Muslims in the world, is written off by Westerners as just another "war torn" area it's probably best to stay clear of.

What was that pivotal something? Krakatau. The worst natural disaster in human recorded, verifiable history. What happened immediately thereafter? The Dutch closed up shop and pretty much abandoned the Asians to economic famine and ignominy. Next thing you know ol' Abu's a fanatical muslim.

Afghanistan? We abandoned it to the Taliban after the Russian war was safely (for us) over.

Pakistan? Well, with the Cold War waning, we really couldn't justify those listening stations there anymore now, could we? Bye Bye to the West and Hello Radical Islam!

Over and over and over this pattern repeats itself throughout modern history. Westerners abandon and Muhammed soothes. The kings of the islamic theocracies... and I'll be so bold as to place Iran in this catagory... have become expert at manipulating the rage of their peoples so as to deflect the expression of their pain onto the West and away from those that are directly responsible for their plight, their leaders themselves.

The East has been mismanaged from the get go. We can keep trying to blame it on them, claiming they've "always" been fighting "over there" and will continue to do so forever. The price for those pseudo clean hands of ours can be set up on a payment plan, with horrors like 9/11 serving as installments. We also have the choice of owning the consequences of the West's past involvements reaching back to the spice trade and fixing that which we abandoned to disrepair and outrage.

One needs to look no further than Cuba to see how well America's turning of a cold shoulder works in our favor. Had we followed the advice of our founding fathers and avoided entangling alliances with other nations, keeping our noses out of the business of others, maybe we wouldn't be finding ourselves in this position today. Personally, I blame the Europeans for being such pussies and dragging us into WWI, but I sigh and admit that it was our own leaders at that time that answered the call with their hearts in the right, albeit a misguided, place.

As a libertarian, I firmly believe in isolationism and I can point to the mess it's absense in our policy has created as proof that my beliefs are correct. As a realist, however, and a responsible person, I can also see the need for fixing that which we had a hand in breaking. Can isolationism ever again be the official foreign policy of America? Probably not in my lifetime. There's just to much international work that needs to be done before such a policy could be considered reasonable and prudent. I do believe, however, that a return to such a policy, once we've helped repair the damage we've caused, should be the long term goal.

In the mean time, there's work to do in the Middle East...