Nikki Haley’s enjoying her moment. She’s inching up in the polls and, through her side job — ostensibly suspended during her campaign — of getting us into a war in Iran, has greatly benefited from the Hamas attack on October 7th.
While I appreciate her devotion to her cause, attacking Iran is certain to cost us dearly, greatly expand the Israel/Gaza conflict, bring any number of additional countries into the conflict, raise the stakes, and increase the misery.
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Nikki Haley, like most Neocons, articulates the most convincing, fact-based or not, case for getting into a conflict. To Neocons, the human and military costs of a conflict and whether or not it diverts the resources and attention necessary to develop the technology, equipment, and training necessary for US forces to prevail in a peer-to-peer conflict are insignificant considerations compared to putting boots on the ground, US or surrogate, and playing policeman to the world. They avoid defining an objective as that creates a possible end point, and once the US is in a conflict, an impossible objective can always be conjured up, along with the sunk cost argument, to make the case for keeping it going. The pattern rarely varies, and America’s defenses and taxpayers always take a beating.
One of this century’s lessons we should by now have learned is that putting US boots on the ground in countries we don’t understand is counterproductive.
At the end of the 20th Century, the US led a unipolar world. Since then, we’ve squandered our advantage on Neocon-inspired endless misadventures. The next President should ensure we devote our attention to defending the United States.
When I think of Nikki Haley, all I can think of is George W. Bush in a dress.
James W. McConnell
Colonel, US Army – Retired
Chairman, New Hampshire Veterans for DeSantis
Former President, New Hampshire State Council of Vietnam Veterans (2014-2018)