Lostkitty, I read your link. Thank you for reading my link. I try to be fair and respectful of others. I hope I accomplish this goal but am aware that I have faults just like six billion other people on this planet. It can be easy to stumble off the path of respect and fairness, you always need to be looking where you are going.
I do not think it is good idea to base our foreign policy on what is popular. The right course is rarely the easiest course. This is not a statement about whether our actions are currently right or wrong, rather, it is simply a statement that policy should not be a world popularity test – now or in the future.
If there is widespread support for suicide bombings targeting children and families waiting at bus stops, does this make it right?
I am reminded of the country song that says, “A man who doesn’t stand for something will fall for anything.”
Volker was not too popular when he was fed chairman but I hear a lot of admiration for him on this forum. History will put it in perspective and judge us that way. The future has a way of reacting in ways we cannot predict. An action or inaction today might have a completely unforeseen consequence.
For instance, let us say we had responded sharply to the first World Trade Center Bombing. Our weak, almost nonexistent response may well have encouraged 9/11 because we looked pathetically ineffectual. Unfortunately we will never know if we could have changed things.
We turned tail and ran out of Somalia because it suddenly was not popular. Once again we looked weak and ineffectual.
Hitler was allowed to take over a little chunk of Europe unchecked. Everybody was happy to do the popular thing by making friends and appeasing him. We all know what happened next.
I do think that it was time we showed ourselves a strong nation, resolute in adversary and willing to swim upstream.
