Is US the World's Policeman or an Empire?

[Omaha Steve]

Full article: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0802-24.htm



Published on Wednesday, August 2, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Is US the World's Policeman or an Empire?
by Ted Rall


NEW YORK -- Are we the world's policeman? Or are we an empire? The rest of the world has already made up its mind about us. The president of the Pew Research Center, whose latest poll of foreigners finds they hate the United Stats more than ever, says: "Obviously, when you get many more people saying that the U.S. a threat to world peace as...Iran, it's a measure of how much is sapping good will to the United States."

But we Americans remain deeply divided over American values and intentions, and it's high time that we got our story straight.

In 1975 Philip Agee published his explosive memoir of his career as a CIA operative, Inside the Company. The former black ops specialist provided proof for what critics had long suspected, that the United States government had assassinated popularly elected foreign leaders and propped up brutal right-wing dictatorships in countries such as Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico and Argentina throughout the '60s and '70s. Published in the wake of Watergate and the forced resignation of Richard Nixon, disgust for the dirty dealings described by Agee contributed to a reformist wave that fed Jimmy Carter's successful 1976 bid for the presidency.

Upon taking office Carter declared "the soul of our foreign policy" to be concern for human rights. Carter recalled in a 1997 interview: "I announced that human rights would be a cornerstone or foundation of our entire foreign policy. So I officially designated every U.S. ambassador on earth to be my personal human rights representative, and to have the embassy be a haven for people who suffered from abuse by their own government. And every time a foreign leader met with me, they knew that human rights in their country would be on the agenda. And I think that this was one of the seminal changes that was brought to U.S. policy. And although in the first few weeks of his term my successor Ronald Reagan disavowed this policy and sent an emissary down to Argentina and to Chile and to Brazil--to the military dictators--and said, 'The human rights policy of Carter is over,' it was just a few months before he saw that the American people supported this human rights policy and that it was good for his administration. So after that he he became a strong protector of human rights as well."

[arcane1]

1. it's an empire that needs to be policed

[DavidDvorkin]

2. It's a tired old man

who refuses to accept reality and thinks he's still a muscular young stud.

[Demeter]

3. It's Piracy!

()
//alter-eco.net/Gallery/AEJollyGeorge.jpg

sorry--don't know how to post the picture, but it's a scream! Click on the link....Okay, i'm mostly computer illiterate--I do hardware, man, not that wussy software!

[pansypoo53219]

4. policeman?

nore like a nightwatchman unarmed and only watches one floor.