The Virtue of Pursuing National Self Interest

I am constantly frustrated by bleeding hearts who insist that this or that cause must be pursued, as it is just and good. These folk often complain bitterly when the military is engaged in a cause that doesn't exactly mesh with the current cause célebre. The most recent example is obvious; twenty years ago the plight of women in Afghanistan was constantly decried. Now? Well, unfortunately for the women of Afghanistan, their interests happen to align with those of the US Government. Oops. Bad call on your part, Afghan women. Now those same hippies who were screaming Something Must Be Done are wailing about yet another War For Oil.

It's as if there is some unwritten rule that reads That which is good for the goose and also good for the US Government causes hysteria and incoherence in the gander.

How many years did we listen to people wail about starving Iraqi children under the failed Oil for Food program? Removing the primary cause of this travesty, namely the dictator who refused to abide by the simplest regulation, is now casually referred to as the greatest war crime of the decade. After all, Bush Lied, right? Well, sort of. You see, precursor chemicals for WMDs don't come in barrels labeled "Precursor Chemical!" Furthermore, Iraq has a lot of open desert where such barrels could be dumped. But again we are spiralling into irrelevance. Is it not enough that we got rid of a very bad man who was starving children? Apparently not. Under our current system, Revolutionary Americans would have had to suffer 20 years of newspaper headlines something like "Washington Violates Internation Law by Crossing Delaware" or "Yorktown Tragedy leaves 3 civilians Murdered".

No one cares about Darfur. Why? Because there is no imminent threat from Darfur. Even the jihadis are too busy killing "inferior" races to bother with the Great Satan. Limited resources imply some kind of rationality in how they are employed, and the only fair way to judge who gets rescued and who doesn't is by asking "What do I get?"