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<p> Wayne Bert has written a serious, but very readable, study of the combination of idealism and aggressiveness that for more than a century has resulted in U.S. military interventions that almost always have failed to accomplish their objectives - either for the United States or for the target peoples and countries. Bert shows that in most cases, from the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century to Iraq in the early 21st century, the United States had no clear national security interest involved before intervention. Moreover, the 'American style of war, ' which relies on overwhelming materiel superiority, was ill suited to the low-intensity warfare that ensued. As a result, he concludes, One could make an idealistic case for all these wars, but no matter how desirable the outcome, there would still be the problem of persuading the listener that the benefits of the intervention exceeded the political, economic and human costs it sustained for both the United States and the target

<p> Wayne Bert has written a serious, but very readable, study of the combination of idealism and aggressiveness that for more than a century has resulted in US military interventions that almost always have failed to accomplish their objectives - either for the United States or for the target peoples and countries. Bert shows that in most cases, from the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century to Iraq in the early 21st century, the United States had no clear national security interest involved before intervention. Moreover, the 'American style of war, ' which relies on overwhelming materiel superiority, was ill suited to the low-intensity warfare that ensued. As a result, he concludes, One could make an idealistic case for all these wars, but no matter how desirable the outcome, there would still be the problem of persuading the listener that the benefits of the intervention exceeded the political, economic and human costs it sustained for both the United States and the target co

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WAYNE BERT served as a policy analyst in the US Defence Department and taught at Wilmington College, USA.

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