That's possible. It was just his opinion. The cultural differences makes sense. Not sure this matters but the person I spoke to went on to work for the NSA. Currently retired.

Yes, I agree. I began to include in my comment that the continued and even more expansive restriction of individual rights by Obama's group indicate something dire in the common perception of the differences in the two parties.

I was a little surprised that more people didn't take note when Obama reauthorized the Patriot Act. I would guess that many on the left assumed he would allow it to expire.

I enjoy your posts Robbie.

I spoke to a former military guy who told me Japan was the worst place he was stationed. He said they were ignorant towards the soldiers. His opinion.

You're brighter than most people give you credit for, Robbie ;)

Germany and Japan are not bad allies or economic partners, but neither thinks that they owe us anything for helping rebuild them. My father was in Japan during the rebuilding (during the Korean War). He told me the US military was despised there at that time.

No country gets to economic prosperity because other countries make them so. This is a corollary to AR philosophy. They have to get there on their own.

Again as I commented in a related post of Cheney's op ed, Cheney and his cabal of neo-conservatives (American Globalist Imperialists) seriously damaged this nation using the excuse of fear of terrorists and WMD's. They did more to reduce the unalienable rights of the American citizen than any other administration - Patriot Act, DHS, TSA, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, the beginnings of the current and ongoing financial crisis.

Very well said Shivas. I think we can back to setting an example for the world but not with this administration. We need to keep electing the best people available. Eric Cantors primary loss is encouraging. It doesn't matter what letter is next to your name, if you do wrong by the voters you're out. I still think we can set things right again.

This is a difficult topic to grasp for many on both sides of the issue:

On the one hand...I'm against the nation building thing for all reasons stated: it doesn't work, it creates enemies, and the looters take advantage of the situation providing weapons, and the entire supply chain behind the effort. It perpetuates the military industrial complex and like all business they want a growth industry. Unfortunately they are dependent on the American public voting for hawks and interventionists and many of our politicians are all too happy to oblige for their contributions.

On the other hand...there are totalitarian regimes out the that essentially enslave their subjects and treat others worse than property (see honor killings and female castration). Like most, this conflicts with my morality.

To top it all off, the left has seized upon the general belief that Bush and Chaney were lying to justify the current administration's continuous fabrications. Like that is a reasonable justification.

Once upon a time we set the example of what liberty and freedom could create and others tried hard to emulate us. But, it's a long process and it's painful to watch other humans suffer at the hands of tyrants in the interim. Is it too late for that to work again or in this era of instantaneous and graphic information have we become too squeamish?

You are correct. I know some WMD's were moved to Syria. There may still be some in Iraq, too, but that I don't know. My source is someone whose job it was to blow such WMD's up safely.

In saying this, I am going to sound like a Democrat, and I am definitely not a Democrat. Going to war for people like Lindsey Graham and John McCain is way too easy, because the defense contractors reward them with campaign contributions in exchange for their calls for war.

Likewise, the unions, particularly teachers' unions, reward Democrat politicians in exchange for pillaging the rich to increase the salaries of union employees. This is most true at the city and county school level.

What have we gotten for our nation building? The only country we helped rebuild that is worth anything to the United States is South Korea, and even their support for us is tepid. We get virtually nothing for our nation building. These countries should appreciate our effort. They don't. They mock us. It is time to be more selfish.

You are correct here in what you say about Dick Cheney, Robbie, but he and GWBush had a false premise as I wrote below.

Not leaving a stabilizing force behind didn't help the situation in Iraq any. That is true. However, if after Europe, Japan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we haven't learned that nation building is a waste of time, we should have our heads examined. The reason we do it is not to mitigate the spread of communism. The reason it is done is to enable the right wing cronies to support the Republican Party in much the same way that Democrats enabling unions starts the same vicious cycle on the left of the political aisle.