The East is a Brain Drain & Rot
Think of the countries the US military and intelligence community has gotten entangled with.
Iran traces its continuous civilization back over 5,000 years. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the lands of ancient Mesopotamia (Iraq) are similarly old, representing some of humanity’s earliest cradles of culture and empire.
Yet, in the modern era, these societies haven’t produced the kind of transformative technological, scientific, or institutional breakthroughs that define leading nations today.
Ancient glory doesn’t automatically translate into modern compatibility with Western-style liberal democracy, rapid development, or easy integration into global norms.
Nation building efforts often crash against these deep cultural and historical realities.
2. Asymmetric/guerrilla warfare is the weapon of the resource-poor and it doesn’t require nukes or moon shots to be effective
When you’re broke and outgunned, you don’t fight fair. You use terrain, persistence, ambushes, IEDs, drones, and proxies to bleed the stronger power slowly.
These groups don’t need advanced navies, air forces, or space programs.
History shows this works disturbingly often against superpowers: Vietnam’s jungles, Afghanistan’s mountains, Iraq’s urban insurgency, and now Iran’s dispersed missile/drone networks and regional militias.
The strong power wins battles; the weak side wins by not losing the war of attrition.
3. What real value do they add to the global system? Sweatshops? Opium? Or oil that belongs to the land itself?
Be honest about economic incentives. These regions don’t generally export cutting-edge innovation, high-value manufacturing, or cultural soft power that elevates the West.
Contributions often boil down to:
Low-cost labor in some cases (sweatshops or basic manufacturing).
Commodities like opium (Afghanistan) or, critically, oil and gas (Iraq, Iran).
Oil is literally in the ground it’s not “created” value in the same way as semiconductors, software, or advanced engineering.
4. Engaging deeply doesn’t make “us” better — and adapting to them risks going backwards
There is little evidence that deep entanglement with these societies produces net positive learning or improvement for Western institutions, culture, or technology.
If anything, the reverse pressure often appears: importing instability, demographic shifts, or lowered expectations around governance and innovation. Adapting too much to local norms, incentives, or tribal dynamics can erode the very advantages (rule of law, meritocracy, technological edge) that give the West its strength.