《叢林再現》美國為什麽非當世界警察不可

《叢林再現》美國為什麽非當世界警察不可

《叢林再現》：孤立主義為何並非美國的選項？為什麽美國非當「世界警察」不可？川普打伊朗的真實邏輯

魏知超啥書都讀  2026年3月5日

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRgKuAvhIJ8 

說好的"美國優先"，說好的退回西半球，為什麽美國轉眼就又對伊朗動手了？答案藏在美國新保守主義領軍人物羅伯特·卡根的這本書裏——《叢林再現：美國與我們風雨飄搖的世界》（The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World）（羅伯特·卡根 Robert Kagan 著）。

卡根說：我們習以為常的和平、自由與繁榮，根本不是人類文明自然進化的結果，而是一座美國用血肉和槍炮硬撐起來的“人造花園”。一旦美國這個園丁放下砍刀，叢林就會瞬間反撲，將我們所有人吞沒。讀懂這本書，你就理解了今天世界亂局背後最冷酷的底層邏輯。

《叢林重生：美國與我們岌岌可危的世界》

羅伯特·卡根著 2018年9月18日

https://www.amazon.ca/Jungle-Grows-Back-America-Imperiled/dp/0525521658

“一本精辟而文筆優美的新書，探討了美國在世界上的獨特角色。”——湯姆·弗裏德曼，《紐約時報》

本書以卓越的視角和遠見卓識，論證了美國作為世界和平與秩序維護者的角色，並探討了如果我們退出國際舞台、將注意力轉向國內將會發生什麽。

近年來，全球局勢發生了令人深感不安的事件。麵對如此混亂的局麵，美國民眾似乎越來越傾向於退出。在這篇強有力且發人深省的文章中，羅伯特·卡根闡明了美國退出國際舞台為何是最糟糕的選擇，因為這種做法是基於對世界局勢的根本性且危險的誤讀。就像叢林砍伐後會不斷再生一樣，世界始終充斥著危險的勢力，如果不加以控製，他們便有能力也有意願讓局勢雪上加霜。

卡根明確指出，“現實主義者”那種承認自身局限性、關注自身失敗的衝動，誤解了美國幾十年來在遏製世界最嚴重動蕩方麵所發揮的關鍵作用。他認為，真正的現實主義建立在這樣的理解之上：曆史的常態始終是走向混亂——如果我們放任不管，叢林終將再次生長。

湯姆·尼爾森書評——《叢林重生：美國與我們岌岌可危的世界》

羅伯特·卡根 2018年9月18日

湯姆·尼爾森（威斯康星州） 2022年2月16日

湯姆的書評：湯姆·尼爾森分享他最新喜愛的書籍。

每當我讀到著名新保守主義“思想家”羅伯特·卡根的文章時，腦海中總會響起一個聲音：“滾蛋吧。”曆史已經證明，新保守主義外交政策徹底失敗，而像卡根這樣的擁護者——以及小布什政府的明星保羅·沃爾福威茨和迪克·切尼——手上都沾滿了鮮血。你或許會認為他們早就應該吸取教訓了，但他們並沒有。

在卡根的長篇論文《叢林重生》（他用這個詞來形容我們最終會回歸到混亂的自然狀態）中，他哀歎美國是如何失去二戰後建立的世界秩序，以及最近另一位布什總統在20世紀80年代末共產主義垮台後所宣稱的新世界秩序。卡根渴望建立一個“全新的世界秩序”，在這個秩序中，我們將努力與歐洲進行深度接觸，並認真審視重新介入中東事務，著眼於建設民主社會。我可不是在開玩笑。

卡根寫道：“人們不禁會想，如果當初把哪怕一小部分的時間、精力和資源用於扶持（歐洲和亞洲）一連串的獨裁政權，伊斯蘭世界會是什麽樣子？”

難道他過去二十年都睡著了嗎？他聽說過伊拉克和阿富汗嗎？任何一家嚴肅的出版社怎麽會考慮出版這種無知之作？

卡根指出，二戰後，歐洲和日本都遭受重創，我們卻成為了自由世界的領導者。《布雷頓森林協定》和《馬歇爾計劃》為重建這兩個地區製定了藍圖。這些計劃取得了成功（但代價是美國製造業和中產階級的衰落），最終蘇聯和東歐走向衰落和崩潰。

卡根認為，正是由於75年前、13屆總統任期前做出的那些決定，我們才被束縛在這一外交政策之下。因此，我們必須介入……方方麵麵。敘利亞、中國、韓國、台灣、阿富汗、烏克蘭、伊拉克、伊朗、也門……等等等等，免得叢林再次蔓延。

這聽起來很像前總統比爾·克林頓的戰略顧問、新自由主義者保羅·貝加拉的言論。他最近曾發表過一句名言：民主黨的問題不在於其領導人，而在於其“追隨者”。他感到沮喪，因為我們沒有慶祝拜登政府的成就，當然，他自認為比我們更清楚。誠然，《美國救援計劃法案》和《基礎設施法案》取得了巨大的成功。僅我所在的縣就從《美國救援計劃法案》中獲得了3600萬美元的撥款，這將使我們能夠開始漫長的疫情後複蘇之路。然而，盡管取得了這些成就，股市也一片繁榮，經濟指標強勁，但就業和經濟問題仍然是“追隨者”們最為關注的問題。

為什麽？因為體製出了問題。

而體製之所以出問題，是因為民主黨和共和黨政府都奉行了新自由主義的國內政策和新保守主義的外交政策。我們沒有製定以美國工人為本、構建經濟的國家產業戰略，而是專注於供給側經濟學、減稅、自由貿易協定以及按照我們的模式改造其他國家。其他所有發達國家都有一項旨在加強產業、維持經濟的總體國家政策。

對外國進口商品進行監管，讓富人繳納應繳的稅款，並投入數十億美元用於基礎科學研究。但我們卻沒有這樣做。（中國經濟並非依靠自由市場力量，例如政府幹預極少的開放貿易協定，才成為世界第一大經濟體。）

我們幾乎被卷入了每一場衝突，因為我們以為這會促進“新世界秩序”的建立。結果，我們發現自己疲於奔命，就像在玩打地鼠遊戲，前一場軍事衝突還沒平息，下一場就又冒了出來。

很遺憾地告訴你，貝加拉和卡根對此毫不在意。

我敢打賭，貝加拉和卡根的家族裏肯定沒幾個人當過兵。我家有七位退伍軍人。我的員工裏也有幾十位退伍軍人。

我厭倦了在這些無底洞般的軍事衝突中白白浪費生命和財富，同時又把寶貴的資源從發展地方經濟和加強社區建設中轉移出去。貝加拉和卡根，我們為你們做飯，為你們打仗。夠了！是時候把新保守主義扔進曆史的垃圾堆，讓卡根退休，炒掉克諾夫出版社的編輯們了。

湯姆·尼爾森為威斯康星州撰稿，他是一位丈夫，兩個孩子的父親，曾競選美國參議員，現任奧塔加米縣行政長官。

The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World Hardcover 

by Robert Kagan (Author) Sept. 18 2018

https://www.amazon.ca/Jungle-Grows-Back-America-Imperiled/dp/0525521658

"An incisive, elegantly written, new book about America’s unique role in the world." --Tom Friedman, The New York Times

A brilliant and visionary argument for America's role as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world--and what is likely to happen if we withdraw and focus our attention inward.

Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse. 

Kagan makes clear how the "realist" impulse to recognize our limitations and focus on our failures misunderstands the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the world's worst instability in check. A true realism, he argues, is based on the understanding that the historical norm has always been toward chaos--that the jungle will grow back, if we let it.

Book Review by Tom Nelson — The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World 

By Robert Kagan Sept. 18 2018

Tom Nelson for Wisconsin   Feb 16, 2022

Tom’s Tomes: A book review series where Tom Nelson talks about his latest favorite books.

When I read the famed neo-conservative “thinker” Robert Kagan, I hear a voice in my head: “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” History has shown that neo-conservative foreign policy has been an abysmal failure and its docents like Kagan — along with President George W. Bush administration stars Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney — have blood on their hands. You’d think they would have learned their lesson by now. They haven’t.

In his long essay, The Jungle Grows Back, (his expression that we ultimately regress to our natural state of chaos) Kagan laments how the US lost control of the world order it built in the aftermath of World War II, and more recently the new world order that the other President Bush declared after the fall of communism in the late 1980s. Kagan pines for a “new, new world order” if you will where we strive for deep engagement with Europe and take a hard look at re-engaging in the Middle East with an eye toward building democratic societies. I kid you not.

Kagan writes, “One wonders what the Islamic world would look like if a fraction of that time, effort, and resources had been devoted to nurturing democratic government [in the Middle East] rather than to supporting a succession of dictatorships [in Europe and Asia].”

Has he been asleep the last twenty years? Has he heard of Iraq or Afghanistan? How can any serious publishing house even consider printing such ignorance?

Kagan notes that we became the leader of the free world after World War II when both Europe and Japan were decimated. The Bretton Woods Agreement and Marshall Plan established the blueprint that would rebuild both parts of the world. The plans succeeded (at the expense of U.S. manufacturing and our middle class) and in time the Soviet Union and eastern Europe faltered and collapsed.

Kagan believes that because of the decisions made 75 years and 13 presidential administrations ago we are tethered to this foreign policy. Thus we must involve ourselves… everywhere. Syria, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Iran, Yemen. You name it, lest the jungle grows back.

It sounds a lot like former President Bill Clinton strategist and neo-liberal Paul Begala who recently and famously said the problem with the Democratic Party is not its leaders but its “followers”. He was frustrated because we weren’t celebrating the accomplishments of the Biden Administration and of course he knows better. To be sure, the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure bill have been hugely successful. My county alone received $36 million from ARPA that will empower us to begin the long-road to recovery from COVID. However, despite this success, a roaring stock market and strong economic indicators, the issue of jobs and the economy remain a top concern among the “followers”.

Why? The system is broken.

And the system is broken because both Democratic and Republican administrations embraced a neo-liberalism domestic policy and a neo-conservative foreign policy. Instead of developing a national industrial strategy that builds an economy from the perspective of the American worker, we focused on supply-side economics, tax cuts, free trade deals and building up other countries in our image. Every other developed country has an overarching national policy that strengthens industry, keeps a check on foreign imported goods, makes the rich pay their fair share and invests billions into basic science research. But not us. (The Chinese economy did not become the largest in the world by relying on free market forces like wide-open trade deals with minimal government involvement.)

And we got sucked into almost every conflict because we thought it would foster a “new, new world order”. Instead, we found ourselves chasing our tails or playing a game of whack-a-mole in which the next military flare-up popped up before the previous one was extinguished.

Hate to break it to you, neither Begala and Kagan could care less.

I bet you dollars to donuts neither Begala or Kagan can count many family members who’ve served the military. My family counts seven veterans. Dozens of veterans populate my workforce.

I’m tired of losing blood and treasure to these black hole military conflicts while diverting precious resources away from building up our local economies and strengthening our communities. We make your food and fight your wars, Begala and Kagan. No more! Time to toss neo-conservatism into the ash bin of history, retire Kagan and fire the editors at Knopf Publishing House.

Written by Tom Nelson for Wisconsin, a Husband, father of 2, former candidate for U.S. Senate, Outagamie County Executive