17 rules for foreign interventions

By Around the Web

(American Conservative) — After trillions of dollars spent, thousands of dead and wounded, and the creation of myriad new terrorist enemies, Washington could learn a few lessons when considering future interventions.

1. Do not attempt to establish multi-ethnic democracies in nations with no traditions of limited government. Each faction believes that “an alien master is worst of all” and dreads the certain prospect of total subordination to the election victors. Do not foster electoral ceremonies where freedom from fear and the rule of law are absent: they beget, at best, the democratic centralism of Lenin. Never propagate civil wars: the revenge killings last for a hundred years.

2. Remember that, as George Kennan said, the worst of rulers knows things about his country that foreigners do not. Respect the beliefs of simple folk, however misguided: rapid dislocations produce horrors directed at the harbingers of modernity. Remember the dangers of government by military, theocratic, and academic castes, who live in self-created welfare states and do not share the economic experiences of the general population.

3. Do not resist secessionist movements. They allow smaller groups to be satisfied with their governments. Be mindful of the happy fates of the parties to the “velvet divorce” in Czechoslovakia, of the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union. Be mindful of the costs of our Civil War, and of the waving of the bloody shirt that ensued, and be hesitant in guaranteeing perversely drawn frontiers, like those in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and Africa.

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