Nation Building

Nation building is the “bottomless pit” strategy used by the US federal government since 1945.  It worked in Japan and Europe, but failed everywhere else.

The “If you break it you own it” doctrine only made sense when it came to helping Europe and Japan rebuild after World War II.  The Marshal plan saved Europe from itself and provided a market for future US exports. That made sense, because we shared the same cultural heritage and most US citizens’ relatives came from Europe. General McArthur made it work in Japan, because they had a meritocracy.

This made no sense when it came to Iraq, Afghanistan or other countries, because we knew we had oil reserves that would have insulated the US from disruption in the Middle East. These were countries that continued a tribal structure of government for thousands of years; it’s in their culture. Imposing other governing models on Middle Eastern countries is a waste of time.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader