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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (20594)	8/4/2001 10:11:02 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

You are quite welcome. I was going to quote Aristotle directly, but thought this was more useful. While I agree with you in a general way, I already think we largely satisfy the requirements of magnanimity, and have done so by and large in the post- War period. The Marshall Plan was perhaps the most magnanimous action of any victor after a major conflagration. Our occupation of Japan was benign, and we committed ourselves to the defense of both Japan and Western Europe on very generous terms. We sponsored Israel, despite the conflict with our economic interests; we refrained from using the Bomb against the Soviet Union during the brief period of monopoly, and pursued "peaceful coexistence"; and we allowed ourselves to be quasi- neutered by the United Nations at a time when we bestrode the Earth. In the end, we not only saved the world from the Axis, but from the menace of Bolshevism and its mutations, at some sacrifice to ourselves as a nation. The Soviets can refer to their casualties, but we never made a pact with Hitler, and we could easily have sat it out while the Nazis and the Soviets had at one another. Those are not Soviet graves in Normandy. Those are Americans and British and Canadians and French and free Poles in the greatest invasionary force in history, and we bore the brunt. In any event, there comes a time when consultation and multi- lateralism have to be qualified by the realities of power and the cumulative weight of history. We do not owe the Europeans, they owe us, and they need us. Instead of handling their own mess, yet once again they enlisted the United States to do the heavy lifting during the Kosovo crisis, for example. It is tiresome to have the European elites indulge in a fatuous anti- Americanism whenever given half a chance. In the end, our dignity requires standing up straight, not bending over and asking for another......