Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Attacks on Iran are already being explored by the incoming Trump administration, which put me to mind of this article I wrote in 2016. Collectively, the U.S. government and its apparatus is the world’s biggest and noisiest busybody. We just can’t leave well enough alone. It’s time for a new approach: not isolationism, because that’ll never happen, but an MYOB approach, as in minding your own business. (Quick Note: the $700 billion for national “defense” mentioned below in 2016 is now $900 billion for 2024-25. And the U.S. has even more military bases overseas: 750-800 of them. Looks like MYOB is even more of a long shot as we approach 2025.)