response to Calisse: Greed? Hardly

Submitted by T.S. (United States), Jan 14, 2003 at 16:00

In response to Calisse:

Foreign policy is hardly an indicator of the extent to which the American system guarantees individualistic liberalism to it people. And while I agree that it would be wise for us, the US, to wean ourselves off of petroleum, American foreign policy vis-a-vis Iraq and the Taliban cannot be said to be based purely in our need for gasoline.

You ask "If the US loves being the world's messiah of "individualistic liberalism", why does it bother far more about Iraq than these [other] countries?" The answer is that the American system guarantees individualistic liberalism to the people who are part of the American system, it does not do the same for the people of other countries. Why? Because we cannot, it too big a job. Meanwhile, what we must do is to address the threats against America, which include Iraq and Al Qada.

In saying "Being the world's most powerful nation the USA can afford to do what it likes even if it be unfair to other countries and get away with it, as it does now." you imply that other countries go about forsaking their own interests for the sake of "being fair to others." They don't. Other countries, do just as the US does, they look after their own interests, for, as they saying goes, "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?" You say "the US could have acted more responsibly on its foreign policies and won friends from all over." To which I must respond: More responsibly with respect to whom?

The US may not have made purely altruistic decisions in opting out of Kyoto and the missle defense treaty, but a country's government is supossed to look after the interest of its own country. You should not expect to see different behaviour from us or others.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".