A quick and dirty overview of why Americans don't know or care about foreign affairs. Unfortunately, I think this falls well short of the mark. There is an attempt to point to Americans as different from British or French. One point that this article raises that I have read elsewhere is that the people of (for example) Saudi Arabia feel, "America is (..) supporting the Saudi [regime] ... [t]he Saudis themselves feel that America is supposed to stand for democracy, yet here they are propping up the totally repressive government they live under as long as it supports their economic interests. Here's this huge power built on notions of freedom and democracy, yet they are living in an awful country with a terrible government and there's no American support for change there." The a nice little sound bite to wrap up and throw around, but it also ignores some serious logistical problems that the casual American is supposed to be unaware of, and yet the article does not address them. Is there an active group that is opposing the Saudi regime (politically, not militarily) and are there dynamic leaders that can seriously set up a workable democracy if the regime were marginalized? It's wonderful to say the US should help throw out the Saudi royal family (and perhaps it should), but if there's nothing to take its place, then what's the point? I think this is the central problem in Afghanistan right now. The Taliban needs to go for myriad reasons (not terrorism alone), but the government in exile (the United National Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan) that was in power before the Taliban is no treat either. Its mismanagement of the country is what led to the Taliban takeover. In the case of repressive regimes that we prop up, I would like to know if there are serious opponents that are in favor of democracy. If not, the US can't govern the countries and without a realistic alternative (not simply tossing out a repressive regime and seeing who comes to the top) it's not necessarily true that we would do more good than harm to throw out the royals. Having a viable alternative government is part of an effective entry strategy, not exit strategy.
- posted by levinson @ 9/27/2001 06:18:00 AM