Over the past couple of years this country has trying to rally its people together by playing up the rightness of its foreign policy. I could say "Biden" but really it's a number of politicians and politician-adjacent people in both parties. And regardless of party or stated ideology, it seems like a counterproductive step.
I have my opinions on the Middle East and on the Ukraine. Other people have theirs. One problem with interventionism is that it declares to your own native population (and everyone else, of course) that you've thrown in with a foreign government or faction. If you want national unity, even just to the extent of people getting along with each other, the last thing you want to do is pressure everyone to agree on some other part of the world.
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One of the interesting points made by President Putin in the interview with Carlson was that not only do American politicians not run the country but nobody knows who really does. I've had William Blum's list of US interventions bookmarked for a very long time. What's amusing to note is that it was already vast even though the particular record ends in 1999. Feel free to fill in the blanks yourself. It looks as though foreign policy has been counterproductive for donkey's.
People's opinions are often emotionally based rather coming as rational conclusions. Somehow we got the idea that the human brain can solve the world's problems when any examination of a social group shows that self sacrifice and service by its members is essential. The ruling class has always attempted to manipulate public opinion but their control of modern media has sent the propaganda into overdrive.
If you don't know who is making decisions in your country it means that certain priorities are held to be so important that no one can be allowed to change course on carrying them out. They're beyond the usual political practice, for reasons the people aren't even supposed to know about. And yes, I notice that the list ended in 1999, when it was written. If Blum had compiled it today it would just go on for page after page.
There's a difference between ideas about the world and the world itself. Theory never covers everything. Of course it was said that in the old Soviet Union the purpose of propaganda wasn't to convince but to make plain to the government's subjects that this is what the official story was and there was nothing they could do about it. That phenomenon isn't limited to Eastern Europe or Communist systems.
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