Re: the attack

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Keaney wrote:
>  Well, today, that is no longer the case, and one
> hopes (however forlornly), in line with all the pointed professions of
> *humility* that President George W. Bush made when coming into office,
> that this will be one of the overriding lessons of yesterday's events:
> the United States and its allies cannot, with impunity, interfere with
> and overrule the legitimate aspirations of peoples worldwide in pursuit
> of its own geopolitical and economic goals.

Even if these aspirations aren't always "legitimate," the US and its allies
need to learn to treat other countries and people with respect, i.e., to
realize that people who don't think in terms of the official Pentagon/State
Department party line deserve to have aspirations.

> [Memo to Chris B.: the US
> has not been punished for its "arrogant isolationism". Had it been
> isolationist to begin with there would not be this mess. It's the
> arrogant meddling and imposition of "one capitalism fits all" models
> that tend to grate].

right: US "isolation" has always been a myth. Back in the 1920s, while
"isolationism" was the _official_ policy, the US intervened in Nicaragua,
etc. "Isolationism" is the same as arrogant unilateralism, i.e., the
unwillingness to cooperate with the other big (imperialist) powers
concerning common interests.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine