ABSTRACT
The dismal failure of the United States (US) occupation of Iraq offers an opportunity to seek significant change in US global policies. After the debacle of Chinese counterattack in response to the US invasion of North Korea and the resulting stalemate on the battlefield, the American public soured on the Korean War. In the two subsequent Eisenhower administrations, the president had to limit his major overt military interventions to the rather small-scale action in Lebanon. The US stretched its security umbrella by adding ten countries in the former Eastern bloc to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and converting the alliance from a defensive pact to an offensive one that provides a fig leaf for US military interventions in other parts of Europe and beyond. Unless the overextended US security perimeter is shrunk, it will drag the United States into future brushfire conflicts that will needlessly expend the nation’s blood and treasure and shorten its tenure as a great power.
