[thechat] P.o.Ws - Thought this was interesting...

[Martin]

On Sunday, January 27, 2002, at 11:14  pm, Ron White wrote:

> Uh, the US has basically only had a "foreign policy" for a little over a
> hundred years, hardly centuries.

True. Although the criticism is still valid with the amended timeframe.

> I think you are confusing the US with your
> own country...

Again, true. Although
1) We don't claim absolute moral authority as often
2) We weren't founded with principles of liberty and equality
    (I wish we had been), which leads to (1)
3) More of our citizens are prepared to say how much our
     policies suck
4) We don't therefore have as many blinkers about how we're
     perceived by the world at large, so tend to behave less badly[1]
     we see the results more clearly. Why do terrorists attack? Because
     they hate. Why do they hate..? Claiming moral superiority while
     ignoring the Geneva Convention when it suits is hardly going to
     help.
5) We mostly stopped doing that shit in the period between the
     Boer War and when we left India.

Cheers
Martin

[1] Minority groups of English football fans excluded

> <>
>
> Oh yeah, that's logic. Not something which has really featured
> in US foreign policy over the centuries.
> <>
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