[Rikard_OHF]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: I've been reading up a bit on the founding fathers lately, and it has made me reconsider some of my views regarding world opinion. George Washington wrote often of a country that should be totally for itself and its people, never permanently tied to any other country or permanently opposed to any other country. I agree. Now, being for ourselves doesn't mean we don't care when people starve or die in a war in some far flung place - it just means that the US's interests are always first and foremost. This notion follows naturally from the notion that the government's power derives from and exists only on behalf of its people - it doesn't (read: shouldn't) give a damn about anything except what its people do. Now, this is tempered by the notion that the Constitution exists to protect, in part, the minority opinion in a land (ideally, pure democracy) where the majority view could hurt some citizens if left unchecked. This is exactly what freedom of speech is about - you don't need to be "free" to speak about the things the majority agrees with, only those things that are unpopular. So, with that minor tempering, I expect the government to act in the best interests of the American people - both the majority and minority views. That said, I return to the notion of world opinion. I'm really beginning to think world opinion only matters to us when: (1) a bad opinion of the US could cause harm (via backlash, alienation of other countries, etc.) to the people of the US, or (2) the American people care about some larger issue that stems from their compassion rather than pure socioeconomic needs (such as, I hope, the environment - but I guess even that is selfish). Anyway, I'm feeling less and less flummoxed when the US isn't seen as a goody-goody by everyone. And finally, I'll point out that the US has 2 problems when dealing with world views: (1) plain jealousy: the have-nots will always feel some bile in their stomach for the haves; (2) damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-dont: everyone wants the big superpower to be the world policeman and fix all horrible wrongs, but still somehow not interfere in other folks' business - what a warped notion of the prime directive.

We dont want the USA play the worlds policemen
Ands thats where the problems lays
coz USA thinks the world does, but they dont