It's not a binary world
Those who are addicted to the red/blue way of looking at the world are missing out on a number of colors in the spectrum.
I'm prompted to write this because of a comment made at another post. In this post, I was noting how Americans can be so focused on ourselves that we ignore things in the rest of the world. (By the end of the post, I had concluded that the problem in this particular instance was my own, not that of the American people.) I entitled the post "And, sadly, yet another reason why people hate Americans." (Bear in mind that I used a similar title in a previous post that commented on confusion - again, my own - between the World Wildlife Fund and the World Wrestling Federation.)
Anyway, a reader (mj - new blog here) saw the "hate Americans" line and commented:
There is only one reason people hate US, by saying US means US Policies Not american people and if you really want to do some thing about that do write about it..
People in the other parts of world also want to live as happily as you do here in US and they want liberation as you enjoy here in US, but unfortunatly only thing preventing them for achieving those goals are US policies. US supports democricy but not in muslim countries. you have ties with suadi kings and parvaiz musharraf who is a miltary dictator whom president bush called best friend. People dont want him but US aiding those all people who are crule to them this is what brings the hate towards US, nothing else. So i hope you will research about it and will write some thing about human rights in those countries instead of relying CNN use internet to see true picture
I replied:
Interesting perspective, MJ. There's a perception over here that Bush's claimed intent to bring democracy to the world is a misguided and reckless policy. Interesting to hear someone saying that Bush isn't doing ENOUGH to bring democracy to the world.
Here's an example of what I was talking about (emphasis mine):
The old fascist playbook: Bush's Speech
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rattle Sabers, Blah, Blah, Blah
****By James Ridgeway
****The Village Voice
****Thursday 06 October 2005
As polls sink, Bush turns to the same old, same old in speech.
****Washington - In a speech about the war on terror this morning, President Bush was sounding like a neocon puppet. And that he is. But his advisors also must be hoping that another photo-op on behalf of democracy and the fight against evil in the Middle East would divert attention from his nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, and the continuing debacle over Hurricane Katrina....
****Speaking at the National Endowment for Democracy,the neocon group long tied to political manipulations abroad, Bush said of Iraq, "We're not facing a set of grievances that can be negotiated." He continued, "We're facing a radical ideology with an unalterable objective, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the whole world."
****There's a radical ideology at play here, all right. And it is the Bush doctrine of unilateral strikes in the name of liberating the tyrannies of the Middle East from the yoke of oppression. This is the era of gunboat diplomacy. The list begins with Iraq. Next in line is Iran, then Saudi Arabia (where we get substantial amounts of oil), Syria, and Egypt. And usually when Bush talks about saving democracy in the Middle East, he's thinking about Israel.
****Bush is saber rattling because the U.S. is on the run. We are losing the war in Iraq, with casualties mounting. Polls show public opinion supporting that war is diminishing daily. Efforts to get Iran to drop its nuclear program have failed, with the British now trying to up the ante by charging that Iran was behind the attacks on their troops in the south....
Here's another:
After a rousing introduction by Sen. Hillary Clinton, multibillionaire George Soros wasted little time in excoriating President Bush in a speech Thursday.
Bush’s war on terrorism has turned Americans “from victims to perpetrator,” he said to loud applause from the “Take Back America” audience, organized by the leftist group Campaign for America’s Future....
At one point, he compared the “Bush Doctrine” with fascism and communism. “The common ground between fascists and communists is that they both want to impose their point of view on the world.” Soros said the Bush Doctrine was similarly aimed at imposing a point of view on the world....
“It’s really quite an atrocious proposition,” Soros said, pointing to the importance of the presidential election in November [2004]. “This is not a normal election; it’s a referendum on the Bush administration, the Bush Doctrine and the doctrine’s first application, the invasion of Iraq.”...
“Bush ran for office as a compassionate conservative, advocating a humble foreign policy. Then came 9/11, and then came the Bush Doctrine.”
Soros explained his belief that the watershed moment the Bush administration went from “boom to bust” was after the disclosures of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
“We must show [the world] that America doesn’t stand for these policies. It’s the most important issue I’m involved in,” he said....
Soros told the attentive audience how he feared the new emerging brand of “American supremacists,” grounded in misguided notions of “social Darwinism,” adhering to a primitive principle of “survival of the fittest” rather than a spirit of cooperation.
In what amounted to his version of a crescendo of rhetorical passion, the mild-mannered speaker raised his voice only slightly to challenge the audience: “We can’t impose our will on the world!
“We went to war in Iraq on false pretences. There was no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. There were no weapons of mass destruction…
“And what I find most galling is the final argument of justification that we went for the sake of the Iraqi people.”
Soros added, “I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life helping people use democracy. If there is one thing I know, it’s that using military power to bring democracy can’t work.”...
Soros harkened to his own experiences in Bosnia, where civil war followed free elections, to suggest that the same phenomenon was looming in the cards for Iraq after the turnover of sovereignty and its own free elections....
And another:
The conquest of defenseless nations is not an idea original to George W. Bush, nor did he create the concept of replacing popularly elected governments with puppet regimes. In crafting foreign policy, the totalitarian Texan has plagiarized heavily from his ideological role models – the vicious barbarians who ran the Soviet Union....
There's also a view that the Bush Doctrine is dead:
On January 20, 2005, George W. Bush outlined the goal of his second term. "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," he said. "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."
Less than a year later, the Bush doctrine is dead, the victim not of outside circumstances, but rather lack of will and ineptness. While Bush may be sincere, across the Middle East, his administration's willingness to sacrifice those seeking freedom has become legendary....
It should be no surprise that Qadhafi has...gone on a rampage. In May 2005, he imprisoned dissident writer Abdul Razzaq al-Mansouri. In June 2005, regime elements tortured to death dissident journalist Daif al-Ghazal. Hundreds of political prisoners remain in Libyan jails....
When Condoleezza Rice visited Lebanon on July 22, she met not only with the new Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, but also with pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, the man whose quest for an extra-constitutional third term began the cascade that led to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and sparked the Cedar Revolution. Syrian television, Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel, and the Arabic-language satellite station Al-Jazeera all broadcast her handshake with the symbol of tyranny....
Egyptians were aghast when, on September 11, new U.S. Ambassador Frank Ricciardone appeared on Egyptian television and declared, "Let me just reiterate the congratulations of the United States of America to Egypt for this great accomplishment. As you know, President Bush has telephoned President Mubarak ... to congratulate him and Egypt on the accomplishments of this past election."
Four days earlier, Mubarak had declared victory in elections marred by harassment of opponents, fraud, and the state's refusal to allow international monitors access. The Egyptian people, in protest, boycotted the polls. Voter turnout was only 20 percent. Rather than support the Egyptian people, the President's representative fawned on a dictator. Sometimes, silence can be the best response....
As they do with Bush, the chattering classes of Europe, Israel, and the American elite once criticized Reagan for his talk of the "Evil Empire" and his willingness to endanger detente for the sake of a few dissidents. Reagan was right, though, and more than two hundred million Soviets had a chance at freedom because of it.
Bush might have been equally successful. Images of Iraqis, Afghans, and Lebanese voting are more powerful than any terrorist car bomb or Al-Qaida video. Armchair experts may say Iraq's liberation emboldened terrorists. But the pages of Arabic newspapers like Al-Sharq al-Awsat and Al-Hayat now carry an unprecedented debate about democracy, which experts said could not happen. Liberals may be a minority in the Arab world, but they have begun to find their voice....
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