Doug Bandow Posed the Core Question about Our American Brand of Warmongering

© 2015 Peter Free

 

21 April 2015

 

 

Even Realpolitik, when properly implemented by a purportedly peace-minded democracy, has a moral component

 

Doug Bandow observed:

 

 

One of the oddest arguments for bombing Iran is that if America doesn’t bomb Iran now, possession of a nuclear weapon would allow Tehran to deter America in the future, preventing America from bombing Iran then.

 

War thus goes from means to end.

 

Americans demanding that Washington attack Iran demonstrate that Lord Acton’s axiom, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” applies even to the United States.

 

The mere fact that America is able to wage war against every nation on the planet does not justify it doing so.

 

© 2015 Doug Bandow, America Should Say No To War Against Iran: U.S. Has No Right To Kill At Will, Forbes (20 April 2015) (extracts)

 

 

When we overlook the ethics of geopolitical decision-making, we become the villain that we profess to hate

 

The United States has been dripping Violent Hypocrisy for some time:

 

 

It’s painful to admit, but the U.S. is the globe’s most warlike nation. Since the end of the Cold War no other state has attacked as many countries or threatened as many countries as has America.

 

That aggressive policy continues to this day. Backing Saudi Arabia against Yemeni rebels. Bombing Islamic State forces. Threatening to attack Syria. Overthrowing the Libyan government. Launching sustained drone campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen. Years of nation-building in Afghanistan. Overthrowing Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

 

All this since 2001. It is an extraordinary record.

 

© 2015 Doug Bandow, America Should Say No To War Against Iran: U.S. Has No Right To Kill At Will, Forbes (20 April 2015) (paragraph split)

 

People outside the United States see our penchant for spreading misery. Their understandable resistance, to our Military Industrial Complex’s delight, creates further opportunities for us to self-justify bloodily crushing other people.

 

 

The moral? — Purportedly Christian and peace-loving America is not

 

It is psychologically revealing that we so casually label Islamism as the civilized world’s most dangerous adversary.

 

Being violent extremists ourselves, we have motivated a counter-response in the pool around us. This is a positive feedback process that seems unlikely to end pleasantly for anyone.

 

Reflection about the wisdom of reactivating ethical and religious principles regarding love and courageous mildness is appropriate. Just because avaricious warmongers have bought our institutions does not mean we are morally justified in letting them continue to run the nation in ways that consistently wound.