From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Aug 13 2002 - 08:17:22 MDT
>From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
>To some extent this is of course a good thing. The nation or
>person who only acts in ways that improves its image to others
>will not be able to do much useful stuff for itself or act
>according to its morals. But ignoring one's image in politics will
>lose you potential allies. Right now the US doesn't need any
>allies politically, but what about tomorrow?
Allies are appreciated, fair weather friends no one needs.
>There is a huge missed opportunity here: right after 911 the US
>government could have acted as a paragon of democracy, the open
>societiy and human rights. It would have earned it further respect
>and while not silencing the harshest critics it would have made
>many moderates feel that the US acted justly - giving it greater
>leeway and very likely not hindering the implementation of broad
>anti-terrorist projects. But the erosion of the US moral image
>that is happening today makes the rest of the world see it as
>acting only from a position of strength, not one of justice. It
>leaves the US without true allies, and may increase the
>polarisation of the US vs. *everybody* else.
We are at war, and still more than a little pissed. Many of our so
called allies have proven to be fair weather friends.
I do agree that we could have done a number of things better
however, and we should strive to do so.
I do think we should join the ICC for instance, but I also think we
should withdraw from U.N. peacekeeping missions.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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