Thanks,
Richard Moskowitz

For all my disapproval, I am not one who believes that Bush truly has some malicious plot to cause harm to the world and I agree he is acting on the basis of what he considers to be heroic motivations. Unfortunately, this does not get me far in evaluating his performance.

However, I certainly don’t want to be any part of a “West” that has decided to “pull together,” presumably under the arrogant leadership of the United States, and I think many others in the “West” share my reluctance. Such mutual identification, presumably on the basis of a perceived superior culture or history, is, I believe, not terribly helpful. Instead, “pulling together” with the rest of the world, which I think would far better serve us all, will require abandoning allegience and support for American exceptionalist dreams.

I’ve read thru the articles you posted … and here’s the thing. American ideals did not just spring one day from America. We’re a product of Western civilization and thinking as it’s developed for the past two thousand years.

I don’t think these ideals in and of themselves are anything to be afraid of, I don’t see the matter with people voting for their own government … or demonstrating without fear if they disagree with something. But, because these ideals are attached to America, and we’re promoting them, it’s somehow scarey and sinister.

What seems to frighten people overseas, who do not know America well, is the notion of American “imperialism.”

We’re not the most tactful people in the world, and that’s compounded by the fact that thinkers outside the States tend to project their own country’s shortfallings on the US.

Also, American own thinkers don’t always, well, think before they engage their moutns, or their pens.

I know my countrymen — we do not have the attention span to be a “colonial” power in the traditional sense of the word. We barely have the attention span to carry a war through for four years, if we’re not winning decisively. We could have never dealt with the 30 year war, much less the hundred year war in Europe.

Here’s the problem — right now, there’s an incredibly ugly international geo-political scene developing, and I think that the West would be better served by pulling together, than by backstabbing and bickering.

Mr. Bush didn’t wake up one morning in summer of 2001, and say “Gee, I want to really screw up the world!”

I do think he woke up on September 12, thinking “Jeez, what are we going to do about this?”

His solutions have been ongoing, and less than perfect. I will admit that. But the forces that have been building up to produce things like 9/11, the Madrid and London bombings … the incidents in Bali and Indonesia … have been building up for decades. To not have business as usual with countries that produce the conditions which encourage terrorism would seem appropriate.

While folks are spending time and energy being terrified of America, I wish they’d also consider some of the other things in the world which are less than ideal.

You’ve got an interesting perspective; sorry to have run on so long.