As it stands, I see a blindspot in the EA community’s current efforts in tackling autocracies.
Agreed. It seems this has been a persistent problem in liberal culture since around the Vietnam era. The focus is usually on what we’re doing wrong, and the dictators typically get a free pass.
The war in Iraq was a good example. Liberal culture was OUTRAGED!! at the American invasion, but showed little interest in Saddam’s attack on Iran, which resulted in massive loss of life.
To this day it seems to be taken as an obvious given that the Iraq war was a huge mistake, which is a reasonable point of view. But I’ve yet to read a single such critic who grasps that the Iraq war probably prevented a nuclear arms race between Iraq and Iran, and thus the entire Middle East.
A nuclear arms race in the Middle East, what could possibly go wrong?
Interesting argument. Hard to know the counter-factuals of history. But even if this is right, it seems very hard to defend foreign military occupations—even when successful at achieving some goals- on a cost effectiveness basis.
Agreed. It seems this has been a persistent problem in liberal culture since around the Vietnam era. The focus is usually on what we’re doing wrong, and the dictators typically get a free pass.
The war in Iraq was a good example. Liberal culture was OUTRAGED!! at the American invasion, but showed little interest in Saddam’s attack on Iran, which resulted in massive loss of life.
To this day it seems to be taken as an obvious given that the Iraq war was a huge mistake, which is a reasonable point of view. But I’ve yet to read a single such critic who grasps that the Iraq war probably prevented a nuclear arms race between Iraq and Iran, and thus the entire Middle East.
A nuclear arms race in the Middle East, what could possibly go wrong?
Interesting argument. Hard to know the counter-factuals of history. But even if this is right, it seems very hard to defend foreign military occupations—even when successful at achieving some goals- on a cost effectiveness basis.