Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
% On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:30:51 -0400
% Bruce Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
%
%|Exactly. One of the things we *must* give up is the thought that we must be
%|liked by the world. As long as what we do is 'correct and proper', let the
%|world think what it wants.
%
% I think the US has always done this. It is the 'correct and proper' part
% that has been the problem. What we consider to be so is not what everyone
% considers to be so. The US would do much better to just stay out.
% Do nothing. Let people complain about that. By not doing anything we do not
% take sides. OK, through inaction, but if it is how the US always does things,
% everyone will pretty much be treated the same. The world will go to hell if
% the US sits back? There is another problem. Ego. The US just has to accept
% the fact that they cannot make the world safe. To paraphrase Keith, as
% long as there are humans, there will be those who cause problems.
%
% I know this is unrealistic and will never happen. But if it did, it would
% be best for the US. Maybe not for the world. But maybe the world does not
% want to be helped. (I'm writing this and it is only Monday...)
Hmm. The US is damned it it does and damned if it doesn't. If it
becomes self-absorbed or isolationist, a significant part of the world
community complains the US has abdicated its leadership role or pisses
and moans because they monetary aid ceases to flow. But US involvement
in region X or on any side of issue Y, whether it serves US national
interests or not, also results in both praise and condemnation. Given such
a position 'twixt Scylla and Charybdis, US leaders and the population
as a whole have rightly concluded it is best to act and to take
positions that do serve US interests. Said positions and actions, not
coincidentally, also seem to serve the interests of other countries as
well.
And, yes, the world will go to hell if the US sits back.
Kurt
--
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do.
Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
-- Mark Twain
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