Friends + Interlocutors,

Another thoughtful column by Caitlin Johnstone. She’s an honest, self-confessed lefty who is reposted by some libertarian and/or conservative outlets. And it is easy to see why. She makes good sense most of the time. And she is unafraid to speak the unvarnished truth. 

The only time I get skeptical is when she uses a term like “the western empire”. I like it better when she refers to “the U.S.-led world order”. The latter is more accurate and that circumstance is regrettable. I have been suggesting for a long time that the U.S., to wit, Washington, stop leading the world or stop trying to. 

America has no business being in the world leadership business, despite what Mike Pompeo and other egocentric luminaries in the Washington foreign policy establishment routinely proclaim. The Founding Fathers of the U.S.A. specifically warned against it on philosophical and practical grounds. They were ignored at the end of the 19th Century and this resulted in the Spanish-American war, to be followed by two world wars.

The track record in the 20th Century and now in the post-Cold War era indicates that America has on balance caused far more destruction and mayhem, far more harm than good both for itself and for the world at large. That’s a big subject for another day. I have covered it elsewhere. In the meantime, it is something to think about.

Patrick 

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P.S. “If America doesn’t lead, the world is forlorn. There’s nobody. … For good or for bad, it sits on our shoulders, and we should own that, and we should be happy to go lead in that way.”—Mike Pompeo