"This poor wife says, 'Jolene, please don't take my man; don't take him just because you can,' and that's what worries me. I think we might be in a period where we think what we can do, we should do because we can. And I think the world is starting to view us that way."
"I'm a big fan of Dolly Parton. Do you remember her song 'Jolene'? This poor wife says, 'Jolene, please don't take my man; don't take him just because you can,' and that's what worries me about current foreign policy."
Retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, speaking at the New Orleans Book Festival with Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed himself as a Dolly Parton fan and invoked her song 'Jolene' to articulate concerns about Trump's second-term foreign policy approach. McChrystal drew a parallel between the song's plea not to take someone "just because you can" and his worry that current U.S. foreign policy may be driven by capability rather than strategic necessity. He expressed concern that the world increasingly views America as acting based on what it can do rather than what it should do. McChrystal, a legendary Special Forces operator and former NATO commander in Afghanistan, used this unexpected cultural reference to frame his critique of the administration's approach to Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Greenland, and other geopolitical concerns.
Read at The Atlantic
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