18. Teresita
“Nationbuilding is not and never was in the US Charter. That’s the Wilsonian/neo-con dream.”

That is so, Teresita, but nationbuilding can be the best solution when that nation is toxic and represents or has represented an existential threat.
We didn’t rebuild Germany after WWI and in fact exacerbated their financial predictament with the Versailles Treaty and they came back for an encore in 25 years.
We did it properly after WWII and solved the problem for good (I think) even though we had to stay for ten years to make sure the Nazis couldn’t do an encore and another 35 years to keep the Russkies off their backs so they had no excuse to re-arm in a big way.
So nation rebuilding can work though I’m afraid we may have cut the Iraqis loose before they were ready but that die is cast, now.