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Comment by amanaplanacanal | Hacker News Reader

How long do you suppose it will be until the US gets into another crazy Asian adventure? GW Bush ran on a platform against nation building, and still got into two nightmare wars. Who will be the next president to be led down this path?

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It was about 25 years between Vietnam and Afghanistan, and Americans are far more isolationistic now than they were after Vietnam.

Like GW Bush, it will probably be whichever president is the next to preside over a deadly attack on American soil.

You're forgetting about the Gulf War, Kosovo/Bosnia War, and a handful of significant "interventions" and "police actions" around the world. Plus there is the ongoing crisis in Syria, Iraq, and Libya (Not an Asian adventure, but still battling Islamic troops).

I would not be surprised if the country is dragged into another war during the current administration. Could be Georgia (the country), Pakistan, Israel, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, or any number of other destabilized nations in the region.

Kosovo/Bosnia was more about taking attention away from the impeachment of President Clinton.

Not sure I agree, as the NATO was actively engaged by 1994 after https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banja_Luka_incident . After which time, NATO / US forces began active bombing campaigns against Serbian targets.

Kosovo/Bosnia was about the new incoming French president Mitterand doing private deals with Milosevic, who promised him that the enclaves will be okay. They weren't. Srbenenica caused the NATO airplanes finally flying, ending the sieges and genocides.

Yugoslavia is in Europe and not Asia. The Gulf War was in-and-out within a year and actually achieved a concrete mission set out ahead of time.

US took actions vs Iran and Iraq in the 80s and early 90s.

Bin Laden attacked the twin towers in the early 90s. It was originally a big bomb in the basement / garage floors, but the bomb wasn't strong enough to topple the towers.

We didn't start the fire. It was always burning, since the world's been turning

At this juncture it is very difficult to see because we are seeing a broad realignment and resurgence of non-interventionism. For example, it is quite clear that the GOP war hawks are no longer popular, and nation building has become anathema in that party, whereas it used to be more accepted. On the other hand, I personally believe the opposite force is happening within the democratic party, but I'm guessing that'll be an unpopular sentiment around here.

EDIT: if you're going to downvote, at least engage.

Well we are "pivoting" to asia. Apparently, that's the new battlefront. Funding unrest in myanmar now that the hong kong fiasco failed. Also a few black presidents/leaders died in the last few months. No doubt isis will magically show up all over africa and we'll need to set up more bases there in the near future. God knows the people who want iran and venezuela taken out are still around. Who knows these people will do to get us to destroy iran and venezuela.

Considering that the "defense" budget has increased, I doubt the empire is ending anytime soon. More wars. You have to justify your budget. My guess is that we will be "defending" ourselves all over asia, africa, south america, etc. Now that iraq, syria, libya, afganistan, etc were turned to rubble ( mission accomplished ), we'll need to spread "democracy" all over the world.

We're like the borg. We have to assimilate them all. It's amazing how long we've been able to get away with being so evil and cruel.

I don't think they are able to. China and Russia beat the United States in war games, so 100% of the forces will be devoted to that.

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