“Mideast Self-Reliance Isn’t a Problem—It’s Our Ticket Home”

This is a statement of a position held by many libertarians as well as some on the political left:

http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/12/28/mideast_self-reliance_isnt_a_problemits_our_ticket_home_110554.html

I find it a stimulating thought, but I do worry about the general perils of isolationism.  These matters require considerable serious  reflection.

I’m not among those, by the way, who think that the Iraq War and (even more) the war in Afghanistan were totally wrong and unjustifiable.  Given what the intelligence agencies of multiple nations (e.g., Germany, Russia, Israel, and Egypt, as well as the United States) were telling us, President Bush’s decision to go into Iraq was understandable.  Had he done nothing, and had we been subjected to a domestic chemical, biological, or nuclear attack launch from Baghdad, he would have been roundly (and justly) condemned for having done nothing to defend us despite what seemed solid intelligence information.  These things always involve judgment calls.  Sometimes those calls will be wrong.