War the American way

 America wages war like the world's biggest NGO, a do-gooding non-profit for which armed conflict is not the sharp end of a nation-state's interest but an act of global stewardship. It's war as the ultimate NPR fund drive: For a pledge of $12 billion, we'll open a schoolhouse in Kandahar and a women's-health clinic in Shah Joy and give everyone a copy of Three Cups of Tea. Six months after the last NATO soldier leaves, there will be no women at the women's-health clinic and no schoolgirls at the schoolhouse. We came, we spent, we left no trace. – Mark Steyn, quoted in Time Magazine, 2011.