I think it would be neat to have a big parliament where people from all over the world, not matter how much of a police state they might live in, can vote against the United States. I really, really care what a bunch of people with guns in their backs, exposed to nothing but the harangues of the Omnipotent Leader, think about our foreign policy. If they don't like us, we must be wrong......
Possibly you haven't noticed, but the opposition to American policies is not only coming from police states. An awful lot of it is coming from democracies, and many of the leaders of democracies that have supported us are risking their political careers by doing so over the objections of their own people.
The democracies of the world, combined, can flatten the police states in any kind of vote. The attitude the US has taken lately, though, is unlikely to produce this kind of alliance that is needed.
Our problem is not opposition from police states. Our problem is opposition from democracies, and it's a problem we need to consider seriously. It hasn't been widely noticed, but the administration has been trying to buy support from democracies in the developing world by using trade concessions as a political carrot. This is an extremely destructive policy, in the long run. It is ridiculous to ask a nation to adopt a subservient foreign policy in order to gain the privilege of trading with us. This sort of attitude, coming from people who claim to be supporters of democracy around the world, is hypocrisy of the highest order. |
