At 03:50 PM 6/13/01 +1000 Brett Coster wrote:
>Dammit but current US policy and especially Congressional attitudes set off
>bells for me. So like after WW1 and just before WW2, two occasions when US
>involvement in world affairs might have made an enormous difference.
I could not agree more. In fact, the *one* issue where I nearly
contemplated supporting Gore over Bush was on the subject of foreign
policy. I remain deeply concerned about the isolationist school of
Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell. Fortunately, the Bush Administration,
like the Clinton Administration before them, seems to be finding that
America cannot ignore foreign polic altogether. The leaks coming out of
our military re-organization taskforce also seem favorable on this regard.
Unfortunately, making the case for caring about foreign affairs is
increasingly difficult as the world continues to make it plain that they
could care less about us. I mean, what are we supposed to do, after
spending many years finding a compromise for the US to pay up its arrears
to the UN, and then our near-immediate reward is being voted of the UNHCHR?
And......
>And no, I'm not reneging on being against the US tendency to try to control
>world events. That attitude is very much an America First type of response,
>as we're seeing with the Kyoto and ABM treaties being dumped for internal US
>political reasons. What needed to be done then, and to some extent now is
>for the US to engage as a PARTNER with those forces that are mutually
>beneficial.
Now, we have Europe lecturing us for dumping a Treaty that *none* of them
have ratified, and would force us to cut our carbon emissions by a whopping
30%, with hardly any alternative measures of relief, while sparing India
and China any cuts whatsoever.
Then of course, there is the amazing inability of other Western nations to
understand the American desire to defend itself from attack. Maybe its
different in Australia, considering the liklihood of a rogue state
expending a nuclear missile on Australia rather than the US. That still
doesn't explain why Europeans seem so baffled by our desire for a missile
defense.
Accomodation is a two-way street, and if the rest of the World can't
understand American reluctance to cut carbon emissions by 30% or American
desires to build a missile defense as soon as we can develop the
technology - then that two-way converstaion will remain incredibly difficult.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Compassionate conservatism is the way to reconcile the two most vital
conservative intellectual traditions: libertarianism & Catholic social
thought."
-Michael Gerson, advisor to George W. Bush
