"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Dehede011@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Brian,
> > Thank you very much. I have also traveled abroad and listened
> > closely to foreign sources explain "America."
> > Have you ever noticed that most of the criticism comes down to
> > "Why won't you Americans look out for our interests not your own?" For
> > that we get called "unsophisticated."
> > Ron h.
>
> This sounds like a perfectly legitimate criticism to me. We're a big
> honkin' superpower with the world's most powerful economy (still), not to
> mention nuclear weapons. How much looking after do American interests
> need?
>
> America has decided to play global policeman. A police officer may
> receive a salary for services rendered, but the job is to look out for the
> community's interests, hopefully as defined by the just laws of a
> democratic government. If America is projecting all this military force
> abroad to look out for her own interests, then America is playing global
> bully, not global policeman, and the other countries should band together
> to oppose her, as villagers once banded together to oppose roving bandits.
Fair enough, then the world can a) stop demanding we "play our proper
role as the dominant power" then get annoyed when we play what we see as
our proper role, or b) stop establishing international standards like
the Laws of War then only demand that we be the only ones who have to
live up to them. Last time I looked, the Geneva Conventions were not a
part exclusively of "US self interest", nor were international
conventions on the treatment of women, freedom of worship and speech,
etc etc etc.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:20 MDT