Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Yes, the US currently is very confused about what is going on in the world right now.

Screwed up Libya, dithered on Syria until it boiled over, presided over a bad ending in Iraq, impotent with respct to Ukraine and Gaza and we await the anticipated collapse in Afghanistan.

I put it to you that the US does not know what the hell is going on in the world around it.
The US did screw up in Iraq and Afghanistan, but at the beginning, not at the end. The screwup lay in the arrogance and hubris implicit in the belief that American intervention could solve the problems in those countries, and that it would be possible to "install democracy" and make it work.

The US does seem to have learned a bit from those mistakes, and they appear to be a bit more restrained about trying to solve other people's problems.

Criticisms of policy in places like Syria, Libya, and Gaza would be more credible if accompanied by some suggestion of what might have been a better policy... ideally a serious suggestion, not a facetious claim that three cruise missiles would have solved the problem, or something similar.

Knowing what is going on is one issue, having a viable plan for doing something about it is another.