Getting rid of all bad guys: The American mission, or a recipe for forever war?

Rajiv Chandrasekaran had a very
good look at U.S. special operators pursuing warlord Joseph Kony. Well worth
your reading.

But in it, my hackles were raised
by this comment from an American diplomat:

"Is Joseph Kony a direct threat to the United
States? No," said Scott DeLisi, the U.S. ambassador to Uganda. "He's not
targeting U.S. citizens. He's not targeting U.S. embassies. He's not al-Qaeda."

Instead, DeLisi said, Kony merits U.S.
involvement because his malign behavior runs counter to "our core values."

"Why is the United States engaged in the world,
for God's sake?" he said. "If we are true to what we believe in as
Americans ... we need to get rid of Joseph Kony."

Justifications like that make me
sympathetic to the Bacevichians who want us to pull back. If the U.S. mission in the
world is to get rid the world of evil, we are going to be fighting for a
loooong time. Among other things, that likely will undermine our nation. So by
trying to enforce American values abroad we may lose them at home.