I'm with you up to here:
Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
...Coming out of the Cold War the US stopped having to be "fair" because no one could do anything about it. We became more and more bully-like in our responses and engagements. Look at how we went from bombing no one, to conducting the Libya raid in the late 80s under Reagan and how serious that single event was, to dropping bombs at virtual random under Clinton, to invading countries at random under Bush, etc. We're out of control. Time to reel it back in.
but there I think there are nuances you're probably aware of but are just not citing. Don't know...

Things you cite happened but I think they were less a case of throwing weight around but rather of responding to the actions of others in the only seemingly available way that wasn't too risky...

IOW, the errors were not errors of egregious bullying, they were failures in imagination, will -- and capability. I suggest that latter contributed strongly to the former. We found out in 1972 that Islamist terrorism was going international. We discovered in 1975 that a bunch of fourth rate pirates could board and seize a US Ship and there was little we could do about it without demonstrating major tactical incompetence. In the November 1979 to April 1980 period we discovered that we did not have the processes, systems, equipment, properly trained people or knowledges to deal with a world that was changing more rapidly than we were able to comprehend. We got a major world change in 1989 and another harbinger in 1990. To all those stimuli, we did not respond or (As you noted) responded very poorly -- until 2001. Thirty wasted years, five Administrations, both parties, untold numbers of Secs, Asst Secs and Flag Officers...

Not because we're stupid but because of bureaucracy and domestic politics that focus on the here and now, on party primacy and our attempts -- futilely -- to ignore the rest of the world. The events you cite occurred because domestic politics seemed to require action and our capacity for action was severely constrained to available capabilities.

Efforts to enhance strategic raid capability and strategic direct action (not the same thing...), stealthy means of ingress and egress, throwaway equipment and a dozen other things were all constrained or refused by a lack of will and avoidance of risk. Many knew what was required, some tried to obtain the proper tools -- and the system rigorously denied achieving the necessary capability and flexibility to operate in a world, that as you often state, communicates quite differently today. Efforts to respond to the provocations you cite were forced into the modes they assumed by lack of viable options, not by a desire to bully. Had we really wanted to bully, we could have done a far more convincing job.

Thus I strongly suggest -- yet again -- that failure to consider the US polity and electoral process; The battle between the Parties that consumes Washington; the bureaucratic inertia through all agencies of the USG; the culture of risk avoidance as the real culprits cause some to attack the wrong targets. We aren't bullies; quite the opposite. We're inflexible, ill equipped, marginally trained blunderers. The only saving grace is that -- so far -- the bad guys have been even less competent than we are.
We need to constrain ourselves. We need to look at a much more complex mix of states and actors within states and balance our actions more effectively. A lot of the big guys in the pentagon are still doing simple math. A +B =C. That just doesn't cut it anymore.
Thus you're correct in that last; however, the problem is more pervasive than in just the Pentagon; our actions are currently constrained by capabilities and domestic concerns. We have the ability to expand the capabilities in many directions and that is easily achievable, all it take is a little foresight and will. Until that is done and until the domestic political processes -- to include those by Uniformed persons in Arlington County and throughout the world... -- are reformed or bypassed, we will be constrained to using the wrong tools at the wrong times and in the wrong places. The problem is not that we should constrain ourselves, the problem is that we HAVE constrained ourselves and deliberately limited our options in an effort to be nice -- until we're provoked. Then we have had and will have no choice but to get out the sledge hammer because we refuse to train and pay Cabinet makers or buy Cabinet Maker's Hammers.

Don't attack the wrong symptom, that won't fix the problem.