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Thank you for this comment. I'm an American but have lived abroad for most of the last 13 years in various countries and articles like this drive me nuts. Yes,

Thank you for this comment. I'm an American but have lived abroad for most of the last 13 years in various countries and articles like this drive me nuts. Yes, the US has made a lot of terrible mistakes in our foreign policy, but we have also paid for and ensured (basically unilaterally) the security of free trade (securing shipping routes, underwriting NATO, projecting force against anyone that tried to disrupt international trade). We did this readily during the Cold War because markets were our strongest weapon against the Soviet Union. Now that there is no equal existential threat, we no longer have much motivation for ensuring global security. When I read shallow reflections like this article, I think, here's a person that judges the wartime decisions of the past in the peace of the present, and submits to the vapid criticism every government levels against the world's boogieman.

dalbasal 9y ago
A appreciate it. But, I don't really think the writer of this article is all that bad. He's obviously writing from a personal perspective. Basically narrating his "disilusionment," for lack of a better term. It's actually a fairly poor term. We always start from simpler idea, less knowledge and grow from there. The reality is that there is no such things as patriotism. It's a made up concept to describe how we feel about our country (another made up concept). There is no True narrative of Turkey's political saga. These are all opinions and narratives, subjective by nature. Facts play a roles, but they are intermingles with a lot of stuff that isn't factual in nature. That doesn't make it shallow. The problem is that we're all playing a losing game. You can't read an article like this, and just fish for stuff that supports are weakens your own position in some meta-trial conducted in the minds of the whole world.
- tome 9y ago
  > He's obviously writing from a personal perspective. He?

dalbasal 9y ago

A appreciate it. But, I don't really think the writer of this article is all that bad. He's obviously writing from a personal perspective. Basically narrating his "disilusionment," for lack of a better term. It's actually a fairly poor term. We always start from simpler idea, less knowledge and grow from there. The reality is that there is no such things as patriotism. It's a made up concept to describe how we feel about our country (another made up concept). There is no True narrative of Turkey's political saga. These are all opinions and narratives, subjective by nature. Facts play a roles, but they are intermingles with a lot of stuff that isn't factual in nature. That doesn't make it shallow. The problem is that we're all playing a losing game. You can't read an article like this, and just fish for stuff that supports are weakens your own position in some meta-trial conducted in the minds of the whole world.

tome 9y ago
> He's obviously writing from a personal perspective. He?