Sarah Paine

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Before I get going, I've got to make a disclaimer.

What I'm saying are my ideas.

They don't necessarily represent the U.S.

government, the U.S.

Navy Department, the U.S.

Department of Defense, let alone where I work, the Naval War College.

You got it?

This is just me here.

Nobody else.

All right.

Americans have a penchant for what I call half-court tennis, which is they like to analyze international affairs and wars by focusing on Team America, what Americans did or didn't do, and then that explains causation in the world.

And Americans, on the other hand, their beloved sport, I believe, is football.

And those people who love football, many Americans, my understanding of it, I'm just someone who reads books, I don't follow football, but now that's just qualifying, I suppose.

But anyhow, Americans who follow football, they study both sides, right?

They look at their home team, but then they also look at not just one opposing team, but many down to the individual player.

And they would no more follow a football game by looking at one half of the football field.

And yet Americans, when we do foreign policy, that's often what we do.

And it gets us into all kinds of trouble.