At the Christian Science Monitor, Graham Fuller gets off a good “gotcha.”
. . . we have been through this debate endlessly since 9/11. Why is there so much anti-American sentiment? No, it’s not because “they hate our values.”
Wait for it (as they say) . . .
It’s our lack of values in foreign policy they don’t like.
Good one, Graham. Expanding on that, he writes that it’s “our hypocritical lack of commitment to democracy, except when it meets our immediate needs.”
The entire essay, US can blame itself for anger in the Middle East, and start making peace, is as eloquent as anything you’ll read on the subject by an American. As he brings the piece to a close, Fuller writes, “We favor democracy — but only when it produces the leaders and policies that suit our interests, not theirs.” Okay, we know that, but then he waxes epigrammatic again:
Democratization is always a punishment we deliver upon enemies, never a gift bestowed upon friends.
In fact, we’re as biased in our choice of states to which we grant democracy as we are with nuclear weapons.