Scheuer unloads on US leaders and educators for war policy

Michael Scheuer has never been bashful. In his book The Looming Tower, author Lawrence Wright described Scheuer as “temperamental.” Scheuer  was CIA chief of the station charged with tracking Osama bin Laden during the 1990s when President Bill Clinton grossly underestimated the al Qaeda leader’s intentions towards the U.S.

Scheuer is an outspoken advocate of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries who don’t pose a threat to the U.S. I don’t know Scheuer’s politics, but I’d place him in alignment with the Libertarian camp on issues like foreign policy.

I’ve come to appreciate him because what he says makes a lot of sense. I do realize there are grounds for debate on some matters—Israel is probably the issue that many conservatives would part with Scheuer on.

Scheuer has a post on his blog about US foreign policy, and I basically agree with every word in that post titled, ‘Our educators doom America to overseas disasters.’

Scheuer unloads on the education system and administrations past and present:

Taught at U.S. schools and universities that all nations share the universalist foreign-policy goals of the United States, these would-be-masters-of the-world seem unable to discern even dimly that no two nations have identical national interests.

Scheuer’s essay is well worth a read. He brings his argument home by noting a candidate in the GOP presidential field:

Dr. Ron Paul often and correctly argues that America’s Founders intended to defend the United States by a durable policy of non-intervention. Such a policy would make sure we did not become involved in wars or other conflicts where no genuine U.S. interest was at risk and in places where we did not know the topography, the culture, the language, or the character of the people.

I first learned about Scheuer from Wright’s book. Something Wright wrote stays with me because I think how different our country and the world would be if Clinton had listened to people like Scheuer.  Clinton was all for gathering evidence on bin Laden and prosecuting him—similar to the way Clinton dealt with the World Trade Center conspirators. Scheuer had a different take.

Wright said, “Scheuer, the CIA officer, had determined early on that the best strategy for dealing with bin Laden was simply to kill him.”

Had Scheuer’s advice been taken, think how many lives might have been saved at home and abroad.

In the end we did exactly what Scheuer advised. By then it was too late.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/October 14, 2011)