Ever wonder why the U.S. economy is so sluggish? Or why our roads and bridges are crumbling? Or why our schools continue to decline? Michael Mandelbaum thinks he has the answer to those perplexing questions. Mandelbaum wrote Mission Failure to show how American foreign policy has not only produced failures, they were expensive failures! Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo during the Clinton Administration started the expensive military adventures. Then the Bush Administration started two wars, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. And didn’t raise taxes to pay for them. If you look at the $19 trillion debt the U.S. is burdened with, much of that money was spent on frivolous and ill-considered military actions. From 1993 to 2014 the outcomes of American foreign policy have failed. Mandelbaum provides convincing evidence that U.S. interests over the past 20 years would have been better served by fixing our infrastructure and improving our education system.
Mission Failure suggests strategies the new Administration in 2017 could implement to reverse this two-decade pattern of failure and waste. I was saddened and enlightened by this brilliant book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: China, the Global Economy, and Russia ; A New Administration in a New World ; China and Human Rights ; Economics as Foreign Policy ; Russia: The Good Deed ; Russia: The Bad Deed
Chapter 3: Humanitarian Intervention ; The Innovation ; Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda ; Bosnia ; Kosovo ; Famous Victories
Chapter 4: The War on Terror and Afghanistan ; To the World Trade Center ; The War on Terror ; Afghanistan: Success ; Afghanistan: Failure ; Afghanistan: The Long Goodbye
Chapter 5: Iraq ; From War to War ; From Success to Failure ; The Wars After the War ; The Home Front ; Exit and Reentry
Chapter 6: The Middle East ; The Center of the World ; The Peace Process ; Land for War ; The Democracy Agenda ; The Arab Spring
Chapter 7: The Restoration ; The End of the Post-Cold War Era ; The Bubbles Burst ; The Rogues ; The Rise of China ; The Revenge of Russia
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Sounds like a book that will confirm my opinions–although I hope he also addresses our woefully-lopsided tax policies which permit billionaires and corporations to pay next to nothing while the remaining middle-class gets hit with higher tax rates every year. I’m still convinced our post-9-11 middle-east debacle was engineered by Chaney and the neo-cons for no further reason than to line the pockets of themselves and their cronies. Disgusting!
/Soapbox dismount!
Deb, there’s no doubt that the military and foreign affairs disasters of the past 20 years have wasted lives and treasure. Mandelbaum illustrates the debacles and suggests if we continue on this fatal course, America will face even more rapid decline. But, of course, the 1% will make money off these ill-considered adventures.
We’re having similar discussions on European forums – the USA were essential in winning the war that Hitler started and of course they blocked Stalin from advancing further, though many people (here in Hungary e g) are still angry because they left Eastern Europe to Stalin.
But after the Cold War nothing that the USA did the world over made sense …
So an explanation for that would be really worth while.
PS:
Also many Europeans think about 9/11 on the lines “The USA had it coming – it’s their own fault” and are very angry that the troubles in the Middle East are spilling over into Europe. Though my belief is that the whole Middle East trouble was originally the fault of Colonialism where the British “played the first violin” together with the French – luckily we Germans lost all our colonies in WW1!
It’s really sad in a way that the USA as the first/largest democratic country supported so many dictatorships all over the world – and still does …
Wolf, the average American knows little about foreign policy. Jobs, family, and sports are the prime concerns. Most Americans hate politics.
Hey, Republicans don’t need no stinking roads or bridges or tunnels…until the next disaster like the one in Minneapolis-St. Paul happens. Then they’ll be pointing fingers at Obama and everyone else but themselves. I don’t get it and never have. Aren’t there roads, bridges, tunnels and the like that are desperately in need of upgrading in Red States too? What is wrong with these people?
Jeff, the Republicans are united in a “stasis” strategy: do nothing and when things go wrong…blame Obama!
With the rise of ISIS we will spend even more money on foreign excursions, I fear. You cannot imagine the state of the roads in Michigan with the state house we have. And a lot of those red states have small populations or warm weather which don’t rip up roads like the weather and populations in the rust belt states.
I live in a very red area of a very red state and I attended a city council meeting a few months ago where discussion was going on about the lack of appreciable maintenance on the city’s water & sewage systems for the past 30 years! 30 years!!! And the city engineer (a Republican, as are all of the white members of the city council) said something like, “Well, we’d hoped that FEMA would replace our old system after Katrina, but they didn’t”–as if it were FEMA’s fault that nothing had been done to maintain the pipes for three decades. It’s always convenient to have a scapegoat, n’est-ce pas?
Yes, definitely FEMA’s fault. Morons.
Jackie suggests that a lot of these red state cities are a lot newer, and hence, less in need of upkeep than the older rust belt cities. Phoenix, Houston, etc.
Whereas Detroit, Baltimore, Boston (The Big Dig!), New York, etc. are a lot older. There is probably some truth in that too.
Jeff, Buffalo has a similar lead problem as Flint. All the older cities with lead pipes need them replaced. But no one is talking about it. We drink distilled water.
Deb, and it’s always ironic that the Government that Republicans hate is supposed to “fix” their problems like city water and sewer systems.
I bought my house in 1975. The street was in ok condition, but deteriorated badly. In 1998 I began calling about needing repairs of the potholes. They patched places, sometimes only half the hole (usually just the bottom half, so the drop in the hole wasn’t so deep, but once, it was truly half of the hole. It was 2013 before they repaved the street. by that time, it resembled alligator skin, and was dangerous to cross in the dark. In 2007 I was told they were soon going to redo pipes, and thus were not going to do street repair until after that. Took them about 6 years.
In the college area, there’s one street that has been resurfaced 7 times since about 1999, and desperately needs it again due to construction of a huge apt. complex. (heavy trucks, etc.) We have regulations about parking spaces, so many per unit. the developers (who were stymied by former mayor bob “groper” filner, the one good thing he did was to stop construction of it as there were issues with the permit) have a parking garage that is mainly unused. they charge $125 per car, I’ve heard. The complex is tenanted mostly by students who park on the street rather than pay the parking fee. There is a park across the street that is really only used by the homeless because there is no parking. There’s another park in the area, near a much smaller apt. complex that also has no parking available, but people who live nearby use it, mainly with their dogs.
deb, I think the name issue was caused by google chrome auto settings.
Maggie, the roads and bridges in Western NY always need repair after a Winter of snow and cold. Many of the Buffalo schools are “failing.” Our healthcare system is breaking down. All these urgent problems should have been addressed decades ago. They’ve only grown worse with time.
Wow, George, you still have lead water pipes?
I remember reading about them being used in Hamburg (Germany) until around 30 years ago and 100 years ago there even was paint containing lead used in rooms …
And also I remember working as a proofreader while still a pupil in high school in summer for a relative of mine which had a printing shop – they printed the local newspaper and some books on linotype machines which used lead letters. So the typesetters got a liter of milk each day from the company to drink – that was supposed to help against lead poisoning. Btw that was a very interesting job – I almost decided to become a journalist …
Re potholes: There once was a comedian on tv showing what they “found” in a New York City pothole . about a ton of assorted stuff – a really good joke, was it on SNL? I’m not sure any more …
Of course we have similar problems in Europe, even in Germany it’s said that more than half of our bridges are in urgent need of repair because of the tons of salt that are put on the road in winter. And especially the bridges built after WW2 used steel of low quality it seems …
But that of course doesn’t help you …
I remember being very impressed by the interstate system on my first business trips to the USA more than 30 years ago – but now I’ve read that the interstates too are in need of repair and/or expansion. But to us in Europe it seems that the military always have priority – billions being spent on weapons!
What we need is a leader who will bring shovel ready jobs to America! Oh, wait…!
Bob, with robots on the rise, jobs are going to disappear for humans.
I don’t care, I’m retired!