In writing her Feb. 17 opinion piece “One Country Among Many,” Angela Adair made it clear that she has more than a small chip on her shoulder.
Unfortunately, Adair allowed her emotion-read: anger-and her penchant for sensationalism to cloud what was otherwise a cogent argument.
Her underlying message is that the United States is on a path of imperialism similar to that of the late 19th century.
The suggestion that the current neo-conservative focus on global democratization is akin to Rudyard Kipling’s “Take Up the White Man’s Burden” is laughable.
While Kipling saw subjugating people of color as the only path toward progress, the prevailing foreign policy paradigm of the day is grounded in the belief that all people, regardless of color, not only share a desire to be free, but are also capable of self-government.
To argue that there are people in the world who do not share our desire for liberty is to show contempt for those people. Just as human rights are God-given, they are also universal.
While democracy and free markets should be forced on no one, the United States is right to do everything in its power to remove the barriers that block these necessary precursors for human rights.
But Adair’s abhorrence for the freedom of others is outdone by the ingratitude she shows for her own.
The “policing” of which she is so critical is never explicitly described, but, given the time period she mentions, it can be implied that Adair believes America was wrong to wage the Cold War.
To wit, America’s history is not without blemish, but fighting to liberate millions from a Stalinist hell is not one of them.
What evidently angers Adair the most is not the policies this country has pursued but that they have been justified by the subterfuge of idealism, while self interest was the real motive all the time. This argument is not without merit; foreign policy invariably involves the calculus of national interest.
But to say that self-interest is the only consideration is to eschew reason and to cheapen the sacrifice made by our armed forces.
Foreign policy is most often forged with a variety of considerations in mind.
Our nation’s strategic planners, like all human beings, are motivated by factors both selfish and selfless, and the decisions made are reflections of these competing ideals.
Like it or not, America IS in a unique position in the world.
The Pax Americana, for better or worse, is the current geopolitical reality and puts America in a position of unprecedented responsibility.
Despite all of our faults, no country has ever had as much power and abused it as little as the United States of America.
That is a tradition for which Americans have every reason to proud.
Simon Bailey is a sophomore biological sciences major.