Gautam wrote:
See, Doug, this is where we disagree. You have somehow managed to convince yourself that the rest of the world is interested in the "right thing".
No, _I'm_ interested in doing the right thing as, I believe, are the vast majority of the people (not
governments) of the world.
Large portions of the European commentariat are opposed to the democratic protests in the Ukraine (for example) - largely because the US supports them - and you believe that. I don't get it, but obviously I can't persuade you otherwise. Was Iraq wrong because it was the wrong thing to do (in which case why, exactly, was overthrowing Saddam Hussein morally - as opposed to practically - wrong?) or was it wrong because it was unpopular?
It was wrong because it didn't have anything to do with 9/11 or the war on terrorism.
So far as I can tell you've consistently made the second argument, but that won't really wash.
The straw man is constructed and then...
A simple example is the obvious one. The most unpopular thing that the US does - and the easiest way for us to improve our relations with the rest of the world - would be to turn on Israel. We could line up with the French and say that we prefer Arab tyrannies to Jewish democracies. If popularity is a key criterion for you, why not advocate that? That's an easy win for us.
...obliterated. Well done!
Popularity doesn't have anything to do with it. Iraq was not a threat and if Bush hadn't been so anxious to attack them, it would have been possible to determine this prior to the war. As it is the focus has been taken off of terrorism and resources and manpower have been dedicated to a failing effort to subdue a country that didn't have the capability to do us any harm. The resources we've squandered would have gone a long way towards actually solving the problem of terrorism which, I reiterate, has little or nothing to do with Iraq or Sadam Hussein.
The reason we need to preserve good relations with other countries is because the terrorism we are fighting is stateless and has tendrils in many other countries. If we work together to root it out we stand a far better chance of defeating it. If we piss everyone else off we'll not only not get cooperation, many of them may even decide that it's just ok to help our enemies out.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
