Gene Healy Says ‘Don’t Do Stupid Stuff’ Is Smart Foreign Policy Advice

The United States paid a heavy
price in the Iraq War: some 4,500 U.S. troops killed, tens of
thousands more with traumatic brain injuries, hundreds of limb
amputations, $1.7 trillion in direct budgetary costs so far and
nearly half a trillion to come in veterans’ care and
disability. Given that history, perhaps there’s something to be
said for President Obama’s latest foreign policy maxim:
“don’t do stupid stuff.” At the very least, you wouldn’t think a
“first, do no harm” approach to foreign policy would
prove quite so controversial. The D.C. commentariat gripes, but
Gene Healy writes that it is sound, even noble, foreign policy
goal, one that can help us avoid further sacrifice of American
blood and treasure—even as we try to extricate ourselves from past
stupidities.

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