The US government doesn't have any moral standing. We've done more terrible things than just about anyone else.
Also, I do not care about a "moral right" where it comes to matters of diplomacy, and neither should you. A country's government is there to defend its people from threats, period. Having the moral high ground is not required.
You don't send your cutest puppy to a dog-fight, you send the baddest dog you have. Likewise, where it comes to matters of national security, give me the platoon of marines with bad attitudes, and leave behind the choir-boys.
Ah, my friend, you speak with the bluntness of someone who has resigned himself to the jungle law of power politics, where might makes right and morality is a luxury for the weak.
You admit the US has no moral standing after committing atrocities far worse than many it condemns, yet you shrug it off as irrelevant. That's not pragmatism; that's cynicism masking complicity.
Of course, governments must defend their people—that's not in dispute. But when the US lectures the world on human rights while arming regimes that bomb schools in Gaza, fund head-choppers in Syria, or turn Yemen into a graveyard, it exposes itself as a hollow bully. Your analogy of sending the "baddest dog" to a fight? Fine for a street brawl, but in global diplomacy, it breeds resentment, isolation, and blowback. Look at how the US's unconditional support for Israel's apartheid and genocide has alienated the Global South and even your own youth. Is that "defending" Americans, or digging a deeper grave for your empire?
I'm not a Republican, but... Muslims are enemies of the faith and of our country,
Can you not see the difference between holding negotiations with one's enemies, and electing one's enemies to positions of power within your government?
It seems Trump doesn’t see the difference either.
Your proposal is... acceptable.
Let's dispose of the notion of moral superiority. Bring that SOB down to the White House, look him in the eyes, and let him know that we are the biggest, baddest dog in this fight. Tell him what lines not to cross and where to line up, and remind him of all the dead dictators we've left in our wake over the past century. Hopefully, send him home with a new perspective, and his tail between his legs.
Your dismissal of moral superiority as irrelevant is fatal flaw. It breeds endless enemies, erodes alliances, and sows the seeds of your own isolation.
“You can do everything with bayonets except sit on them.”
Or the more common modern rendering:
“You can conquer with bayonets, but you cannot govern with bayonets.”
(widely attributed to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Napoleon’s foreign minister)
(“On peut tout faire avec des baïonnettes, sauf s’asseoir dessus.”)Sometimes it’s paraphrased as:
“Power can be seized with bayonets, but no one can sit on bayonets forever.” Talleyrand supposedly said this to Napoleon around 1815, warning that military force can topple regimes but cannot replace legitimacy and consent in the long run.
