Jan. 12, 2007 - 12:40 MST

BLAME GAME

The US in many ways resembles a husband or a teen aged boy, the following quote from an article by Victor Davis Hanson - a classicist and historian at Stanford University's Hoover Institution printed in Thursday morning's edition of The Rocky Mountain News -- following in full:

NO MATTER WHAT IT DOES, U.S. IS SURE TO BE BLAMED

When it comes to intervening in international affairs, the United States is damned when it does and damned when it doesn't."

"The world's public expects that frightening problems, whether an earthquake in Pakistan, an Indonesian tsunami or a war in Darfur, will be resolved as quickly as a cell phone can transmit a digital photograph or a computer can retrieve information from the Internet."

"And fingers are pointed at the U.S. when, inevitably, this doesn't happen."

"Yet no one, not even the all-powerful United States, can easily foster democracy in a country that suffered from 30 years of atrocities. There is no super ray that knocks down Korean or Iranian nukes with the touch of a finger. And the tragedy in Darfur sadly might remain a bloody mess whether the U.S. pre-empts, goes it alone or brings in an enormous coalition."

"In many ways, the global reliance on the U.S. has only increased since the fall of the Soviet Union. While no one would wish to revisit the Cold War, Moscow, ruling with an iron fist, put down tribal and religious malcontents in its sphere of influence. Today, there are no superpower blocs; instead a mulltitude of freelancing killers have been unleashed with nothing much to fear from anypone."

"When the Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003, it was accused of ingoring old allies and snubbing the U.N. Thus, in the next crisis, a wary United States waited on the U.N. to monitor Iran's nuclear delinquency. But for all the inclusive diplomacy, Iran barrels ahead with its nuclear program."

"In another part (of the) world, as North Korea threatened to launch more missiles, America tried to find regional solutionms -- the so-called six-party talks. But nothing much happened here, either, and impatient critics did another about face: They screamed the the asleep-at-the-wheel Bush administration was "outsourcing" solutions and abdicating its responsibility to lead."

"We've seen that in Darfur as well, where the global village has clamored for the U.S. to do something right away about the genocide. But, apparently stung by past charges of cowboyism, a gun-shy American sheriff has opted not to act pre-emptively."

"It may be hard for the world's new impatient generation to accept the truth: There are no simple black and white solutions at little cost in today's technologically connected but politically fragmented world. Restless Americans and a demanding global public are going to have to accept that in Afghanistan, Darfur, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia and the West Bank, the United States itself -- not just the bogeyman George Bush -- has only bad and worse choices."

"After 9/11, caution in the long run might prove deadlier than intervention has in the short term. People will die daily on CNN no matter what we do."

"The only constant in this wired-together but split-apart global family ? The frantic American parent will try its best, as it is blamed for saying no, yes -- and everything in between."

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In my own ignorant way of thinking, we did make a huge mistake of going "pre-emptive" in Iraq. There was a tad of justification in the Gulf War as it seems that we had a treaty with Kuwait, but I had my doubts as to the wisdom of even that.

This seems to be something that Mr. Hanson somewhat ignores, or doesn't really want to discuss.

But for the most part I think he is right on. Now, even more than ever before, we will get blamed to the skies no matter what we do. We are a huge player in the BLAME GAME . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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