The unrepentant interventionist delivered a sentiment that would make Kipling proud to the Washington Post readers, pointing out that it took 300 years to "civilize" the continent of North America - like Afghanistan and Syria, an "unconventional combat assignment" that wouldn't end in a ticker-tape parade.
"We need to think of these deployments as we thought of our Indian Wars, which lasted 300 years, or as the British thought about their deployment on the North West Frontier, which lasted 100 years. US troops are policing the frontiers of the Pax Americana," Boot tweeted, only to delete the excerpt later after getting severely ratio'd.
Comment: Despite the atrocities Max Boot is using for his comparison being decades to hundreds of years old and all that we know now because of them, he's apparently none the wiser:
- Vladimir Zhirinovsky tears American exceptionalism apart
- What the British really did to India
- Britain stole $45 trillion from India over 173 years, says top economist
Boot urged the US to "eschew its big-war mind-set" and settle in for the long haul. "The longer US troops stay anywhere, the greater their chances of achieving our objectives," he said, suggesting that since more troops die during training than in foreign wars, there's no downside to prolonging those wars indefinitely.
"Just as the police aren't trying to eliminate crime, so troops are not trying to eliminate terrorism, but, instead, to keep it below a critical threshold that threatens the United States and our allies," Boot wrote, unironically appointing the US as World Police.
Twitter reminded him that things hadn't gone so well last time the US tried Manifest Destiny.
Many suggested he personally show the rest of America how it's done...
...and there was no shortage of helpful people to point out that certain words didn't mean what he thought they did.
Others tried teach him history - a task they may find impossible.
As his Tweet hit the fan, Boot backpedaled furiously, insisting critics had all misunderstood him.
Comment: So he does have some sense and shame.
But having written an op-ed defending colonialism, it's hard to backpedal without digging yourself that much deeper into the hole.
He may have deleted the tweet about the Indian Wars, but the paragraph remains in the Post... and in his mind.
Reader Comments
All the world's a frontier, a battleground, and all 8 billion people in it are commies/terrorists/enemies, but only superficially. Inside, they're really Americans who are just dying to come out, and all America needs to do is help that inner American manifest his destiny. By killing him if need be, but terrorizing him into submission works too.