Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrLucky who wrote (12394)	2/17/2006 9:34:09 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542005

My point is that I didn't discount what we did right with my critical remarks; the point is that what we did right was hurt badly by what we did wrong in the eyes of the world. Americans can say all our critics are wrong but in the eyes of public opinion, the current administration's human rights policies have 50-50 support in the US at best, less than that among our allies and almost nothing in the target societies in the Middle East and other developing countries. You start with a standard that says the criticism must be proved to your satisfaction, otherwise the positives should sway the final decision. The people whose opinion counts - the Arab street, the public in other developing countries - know what they hear, which is a steady stream of headlines about torture, Gitmo, renditions, wiretapping, etc. The end result of those headlines is a serious blow to US prestige and credibility in the human rights realm worldwide. Numerous international polls bear that out. We are shooting our own security policies in the foot with these missteps.