AFRICA: Transportation companies like DHL, Dubai World, and several Chinese companies which supply oil and mining projects in Africa are working to improve the continent's almost dysfunctional transportation systems. One explanation of why cargoes can be stuck at the port where it arrives for three weeks: "roadblocks, bribes, pot-holes, mud-drifts, malarial fevers, prostitutes, hyenas, and soldiers on the road at night." At the moment, there is nothing like a transcontinental highway, and there are only a few "broken-down" railways. One American study has found that it costs more to ship a ton of wheat from Mombasa in Kenya to Kampala in Uganda than to ship it from Chicago to Mombasa.

§ The Iraqi government is making demands on the U.S. about everything from our right to attack Syria from Iraqi territory to the right to try U.S. troops and contractors in Iraqi courts. And they're telling us they want us gone by 2011. We have succeeded in establishing a fledgling democracy in the Middle East. -- Nov 2008

Don't mix in a family quarrel, Uncle . . .

. . .  is the caption on this cartoon published before America's entry into World War I. About the current Kosovo mess: Pull our troops out of the Balkans and let the Europeans and the Russians and the Christian Serbs and Muslim Albanians fight if they so choose.

Bring the Troops home -- from that Balkan mess
The Europeans are torn between the comfort of not having to pay for their own defense needs and the requests/demands of the U.S. which is carrying that defense load. The Europeans cannot agree on the mix between supporting and participating in NATO and the desire by some to form a strong independent European Union military capability.

In that context, I'm all for removing all U.S. troops and equipment from the Balkans, which is a European trouble spot. Let Europeans assume total responsibility for the Serbia-Kosovo-Macedonia-Bosnia mess, including ethnic cleansing. Unless our interests are directly threatened by some action of either Christian or Muslim entities, let's remove ourselves from this "war of choice" and let the Europeans handle their own problems. -- 13 Feb 08

Protecting national borders
Considering our own trouble enforcing border control, how fair are we being when we accuse Iran and Syria of failing to stop troublesome weapons and people from crossing into Iraq? Do we blame the Canadian government when we catch a car full of explosives coming in? Do we contend that the Mexican government is encouraging temporary workers, drug dealers, possible terrorists to sneak into the U.S.?

In his book "On the Hunt", Colonel David Hunt reproduces translated instructions to jihadists about how to cross the Syrian border into Iraq. The instructions make clear that Syria polices much of its border and directs the jihadists to avoid those locations where "patrols are deployed every 10 kilometers" (6 miles) and to use those locations where the inhabitants have "hatred for the Syrian Regime."

Canada has troubles with its Indians
Faced with "white guilt and aboriginal anger," Canada is having to address problems concerning its "First Nation" peoples: Indians and Eskimos and another group whose name escapes me. The problems are the same as in the U.S., resulting from broken treaties, reservations, historical grievances, special privileges which the natives consider inadequate and many in the majority consider excessive.

Decades ago, dynamic left-leaning but pragmatic prime minister Pierre Trudeau suggested mainstreaming the First Nation population: Total assimilation. No reservations. No special programs not available to the general population. The white majority gasped. The aborigines preferred to maintain their miserable life on the reservation.

Of course, there are always gambling casinos.-- Oct 06

Think permanent, unending war
The hate-filled irrational reaction of Militant Muslims to the Pope's words and his expression of regret -- and the almost absolute absence of any sustained disagreement from Moderate Muslims to that violent reaction -- lends credence to those U.S. "war mongers" who maintain that whether or not we retreat from Iraq, the theater of the war on terror will follow us worldwide and will be permanent. 

Obviously, nothing we Satans of the West do, or don't do, will mollify the extremists. Their "root cause" is death to the infidels. From their caves and their cells they repeatedly declare war, and I take them at their word.

Can we adjust? Sure, we can, just as we did during the decades of the Cold War -- living pretty normally domestically while using economic power, diplomacy, and military power as needed to conduct foreign affairs. -- 20 Sep 06

An unwelcome test for U.S. diplomacy
Using the kidnapping of a single solider as an excuse to do what it obviously wants to do anyway, the State of Israel is threatening to assassinate a prime minister and to go to war -- in Gaza and perhaps with Lebanon and Syria. Just what we need. 200-pllus million Arabs at war with Israel -- and with the United States?

With friends like that . . .

Understandably, Arab and Muslim sources view the Israeli-Palestinian mess differently than we in the West, with some of them reminding the world that "the Zionist entity" still has dreams of a renewed Greater Israel, ranging from Jerusalem to Baghdad. See Some Arab American Thoughts.

Gut-level negativism at its worst (best?)
We catch a major international bad guy. . . . The President has the guts to fly to Baghdad. . . . Carl Rove is cleared. . . . The Iraqis complete their cabinet appointments.

It's enough to make Bush-haters gag.
Apparently unable to distinguish between a notion and a thought, they immediately  began providing sound bites suggesting none of these development has any positive aspect..

Summer soldiers, all. --- 14 June 2006

Canada holds suspected terrorist for 4 years
That self-described "more humane civilization" to the north, you may remember, has joined those nations which tut-tut about U.S. retention policies toward suspected terrorists, characterizing those policies as uncivilized and barbaric.

No comment out of Ottawa about current news reports that "Canada has deported to an unspecified nation an Algerian man held for four years as a suspected plotter of a millennium bombing of Los Angeles airport." Four years? Unspecified nation? Suspected plotter?

He was treated humanely, of course. -- Jan 2006 

Churchill at War: Kill 'em all.
Discussing the practical and legal issues which might arise if the British captured Adolf Hitler, recently released British archives reveal that Winston Churchill said, "All sorts of complications ensue as soon as you admit a fair trial;" such a trial would be a "farce." The Prime Minister favored immediate execution: "This man is the mainspring of evil. Instrument -- electric chair, for gangsters."

Considering other Nazi officials "outlaws," he argued that they too  should be summarily executed, not put on trial.

Any question how Churchill would handle today's terrorists? -- FJV [See Canada, below.

Does it matter?
Who leads the world in producing steel?
America, Britain, and Germany dominated the world's steel-making until the 1970s.
Japan and Korea then took the lead.
China looks like the next leader.

Will our world come to an end?

It helps to keep in mind that Asia managed to survive and grow for decades while importing American and European steel. Despite enacting import-duties to protect American steel companies, of which several failed, prices went up, but the U.S. economy is now on a 40-month roll of continual growth. 
The world goes on. -- Jan 2006

Guns kill people? People kill people?
Think that our country's high gun-ownership rate makes the U.S. the murder capital of the world? A review in The Economist shows: 
South Africa leading, with 55 murders per 100,000 population;
Russia is next, with 20;
then Mexico, about 13;
the U.S., at 5;
followed by France, Sweden, England/Wales, and Saudi Arabia. 

Facts are so disturbing of preconceptions!

Some American Jews worry that
other American Jews are making the wrong choice re Iraq
Recently, VersagiVoice had occasion to comment that American Jews "don't all think alike." Since then, there have been published reports of Jews contending that the Union for Reform Judaism's demand for quick withdrawal from Iraq is "more focused on supporting the political aspirations of American Democrats than on the security of the State of Israel." The "American Jewish Community's attachment to the political left" is considered worrisome by those, not necessarily assimilationists, who are uneasy with too-facile references to the existence of an American Jewish Community mindset.

"Reform Jewish leaders have put what they presume to the the secular equivalent to Judaism above the interests of Judaism itself. The Union for Reform Judaism stands for many causes. It's no longer clear that Jews count among them," says Lawrence F. Kaplan, senior editor of the New Republic.

Health Care in China
As China works it way from a totally centralized economy to a "Third Way" mix of control and free markets, its experiments with health care are yielding troublesome results. Repeatedly ordered cuts in drug prices (17 in 8 years) and in some medical procedures have caused doctors to simply prescribe more medications not affected by the price cuts or to recommend more (often unnecessary) tests for which the patients have to pay. As hospitals apparently do everywhere, Chinese hospitals overcharge - sometimes 20 times more than drugs cost. So Chinese are staying away from hospitals and doctors.

Pension reform in Great Britain
Great Britain is thinking of increasing the official retirement age from 65 to 67 (from 60 to 65 for women). Phased in over several years as the retirement age increases,  a proposed new "pension-saving" program will automatically enroll new employees, who will contribute about 4% of wages. Although the program is governmental rather than private (the retirement set-aside is private), employees have have the option of withdrawing from the program.

Health Care in Canada
This is considered good news in Canada:  Canadians "had to wait only 17.7 weeks for treatment after their first visit to a general practitioner, compared with 17.9 weeks in the same period last year." Whoopee!

In some provinces, courts are trying to decide whether patients have the right to shorten those waits by seeking medical care privately, an option which is generally illegal in Canada. -- Dec 2005

Technology strikes again
Starving Third World infants, sucking a French-invented peanut paste out of a foil packet can gain 2 pounds a week on nothing but a 1,000-calorie diet of this "Plumpy nut," as it is called. The paste is a mix of minerals, vitamins, and powdered milk with the consistency of mashed potatoes, so the infant can suck it out of a squishy packet.

Mothers can administer the paste at home and not have to leave crops or other family members unattended to go sit outside distant health clinics waiting for treatment. Already Plumpy nut has been used to save thousands of infants in Africa. -- Nov 2005

Turkey moves to de-stigmatize homosexuality
One of the cultural adjustments Turkey is making to qualify for inclusion in the European Union is, contrary to Muslim dogma, to identify  homosexuality as an "exercise of free will," and to state that being a homosexual does not mean that a person is "immoral."

Whether this liberal movement will stand in the Muslim world is being watched both by those who support it and by those who oppose it. -- Nov 2005

Terrorism is not a law-and-order matter
From a policy advisor in India:
"Every time India is tested by terror, it characteristically responds by talking tough but doing nothing.

"To respond to terrorism as a law-and-order problem is to do what the terrorists want -- to sap your strength. No amount of security can stop terrorism if the nation is reluctant to go after terrorist cells and networks and those who harbor extremists." -- 13 Nov 2005

Only days later, after terrorists conducted multiple simultaneous suicide bombings in Jordan, that country's King Abdullah urged world leaders to join the fight against terrorism: "Whoever justifies error acts or instigates them is a partner in the crime."

They are going to teach us how to run a country?
France has racially and religiously focused uncontrolled riots -- 13 days and counting. National politicians are posturing about solutions, with the next election in mind.

France and Germany have 10% unemployment, overall, 20-40 among Muslims in France.

Germany with two leading parties, neither a majority party, is into its third month after the election of trying to form a governing coalition.

Key cabinet members are resigning in Great Britain, following a couple of scandals.

Canada is embroiled in scandals related to on-again/off-again separatist movements by French Canadians.

Bolivia is trying to sort out redistricting problems which affect the Presidential election.

Zimbabwe's government admits its confiscation of white-owned farms has contributed to that country's massive crop failure.

Is it necessary to go on? -- 09 Nov 05

The rights of criminals
In most of Europe, defendants in criminal cases must answer questions asked by prosecutors and judges. In those countries, there is no equivalent of our "taking the Fifth" -- refusing to testify on the premise that one might incriminate oneself. 

Even in the United Kingdom, which like the U.S. has an adversarial legal system, if the defendant refuses to testify, "the judge will draw unfavorable inferences," one legal essay reports. Further, European judges "cannot understand how we can justify exclusion of known and reliable truth from a judicial inquiry." The American system of justice "puts a premium on skill, adroitness, even trickery on both sides," suggests another European.

Those overseas critics think that having the defendant's counsel watching a line-up is stupid and an actual conflict of interest; that insisting on jury trials for civil, as well as criminal, cases is wasteful.

No changes in the American system of justice seem forthcoming soon, but it's good not to lose sight of procedural options which work successfully elsewhere.

License opium as a painkiller? [See]

It worked in Afghanistan
Despite terrorist attacks -- in which five candidates and four elections workers were killed, following the death of 15 others during pre-election violence -- millions voted in Afghanistan's election. Women made up 10% of the candidates, this in a country where women had been treated poorly by the Taliban-controlled government. Further, the country, is "no longer an al Qaeda sanctuary," says one report.

Although some 20,000 American and NATO troops remain and will be needed for several years -- special forces to run down those Taliban fighters who hope to frighten democracy away -- Afghanistan, though not perfect, has to be characterized as one successful battle in the war on terror. Iraq is next.

In that regard, the current President of Iraq, while making the case for his country's need for American and British presence for at least another year or so, reminds the world that defeated Germany had no government in place until four years after the end of World War II.

"They preserved peace by constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines that they were as little disposed to endure as to offer an injury." -- Edward Gibbons, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Democrats Flee Peace Protests . . . 
. . . is the headline on a commentary in the October 1-7, 2005, issue of Arab American.
The opinion piece charges that prominent Democrats -- named were John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Russell Feingolld -- "all occasional critics of the Iraq war . . . hid in their holes and were afraid to be seen" at anti-war rallies. "In all fairness, a few elected Democrats did show face, mainly two: Reps. John Conyers and Cynthia KcKinney. But I wouldn't consider either as party leaders."

The anti-war movement's "leading lady Cindy Sheehan offered a tepid excuse" for Senator Clinton's absence. Quoting Sheehan: "She knows that the war is a lie, but she is waiting for the right time to say it." 

Speaking for himself, the writer opines: "I have been thinking for a while now that the Democrats should sit down and consider changing their mascot from a donkey to a marmot. A rodent really is more emblematic for their provincial habits than a donkey could ever be."

The writer, Joshua Frank, is author of a book called  Left Out: How Liberals Helped Re-elect George W. Bush, published by Common Courage Press. -- 11 Oct 05

Disaster Relief coming from Israel
A Mideast news service reports that an unspecified offer of Katrina-related aid from Israel was put on hold by the U.S., because of concerns that Arab nations might not participate if the flag of Israel was seen flying over one of the disaster relief sites.

According to the news service,  Israel has asked for $2 billion in aid from the U.S. and is concerned about any ripple effect from the mindset that led to the apparent rejection of Katrina help.

Muslim asks:
Do we insist that the Pope apologize for Irish terrorists?
In an opinion piece, Victor Ghalib Begg, expresses concern that the media are  stereotyping when they repeatedly demand that the Islamic community be more forceful in condemning terrorists. Begg, who is a Bloomfield Hills resident and chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, also chides the press for identifying "Islamic terrorists" yet not using terms like "Catholic terrorists" or "Baptist terrorists."

Learning from history --
Misreading Hitler's motivation for war doesn't serve mankind
Including the war in the Pacific, more than 50 million people were killed during World War II, 20 million in Russia alone.

It is estimated that 20 million were neither battle causalities nor bombing victims but were murdered. Of those 20 million, in Europe, six million were Jews. I have seen no authoritative estimates concerning the other 14 million victims: the mentally ill, homosexuals, Protestant and Catholic clergy, Gypsies, political dissidents, Slavs.

Although Hitler conveniently used the war to implement his hope to exterminate all Jews, his three clearly stated geopolitical goals were :

• Lebensraum, living room for Germans, mostly by conquering Slavic lands;

• Destruction of communism, a movement whose leadership  happened to include many prominent Jews;

• The establishment of his Thousand Year Reich, complete with classically rebuilt cities and the elimination of the Christian religion among Germans.

As horrible as was the Holocaust, it is a distortion of history and a disservice to all the others who suffered persecution or were killed -- and an unfair burden on Jews -- to contend that Hitler's core-motivation was anti-Semitism when he absorbed Austria and Czechoslovakia, then invaded Poland .

Students of history deserve better. -- FJV date 2005

Already in 1964, some Americans and European complained of --
The Americanization of Europe
"The Europeans welcomed us warmly enough in 1917 and in 1942 -- and 1948 with our Marshall Plan . . . They needed the rich; they needed the powerful."

That excerpt appears early in a long 1964 essay dealing with European attitudes toward America. The author, Milton Mayer, had already cited a Frenchman who 100 years earlier, in 1867, had warned that Americans would "subjugate our spirit, change our mores and institutions, and overthrow the equilibrium of the civilized world." Mayer, who did not hesitate to cite American arrogance and occasional bad judgments over time, also cited the apparently never-ending litany of European complaints about us. The following excerpts demonstrate the tone and content of the comments.

• The European is a hard-bitten man with only one ally: himself. And, in a certain strange sense, with only one durable enemy: the American.

• Americans lack age, with its great culture and its greater tiredness. Americans are easy to know, ready to know, but unpolished, unsophisticated, primitive.

• Why can't the West have a "few ideas of its own without waiting for Russia to take the initiative."

• In his youth, Communist dictator Ho Chi Minh secretly plastered the walls in French Indochina with the preamble of the American Declaration of Independence.

• Americans tend to consider Europe quaint and a little contemptible.

•  All over post-war Italy and France, despite all the American aid, the walls were daubed with the Communist slogan, "Ami, Go Home."

Just a few more tidbits to suggest that anti-American feelings did not begin after Nine-Eleven.

Learning from History
Shortage of weapons and materials for combat
From a report out of World War I's Meuse-Argonne battle:
The continuous fighting throughout the summer, with additional and unexpected requirements for the new offensive campaign, had made increasingly heavy drafts upon transport and animals. It was no use to say that more horses were coming from Spain and from America; they were needed now. All the tanks and aeroplanes and the light and heavy artillery which were in the making at home or on the docks at New York would be of no service unless they were in the battle.

Learning from History -- 
The liberation of Jerusalem
To the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Blessed and the people dwelling in the vicinity. The defeat inflicted upon the Turks by the troops under my command has resulted in the occupation of your city by my forces. I therefore here and now proclaim it to be under martial law, under which form of administration it  will remain so long as military considerations make it necessary. However, lest any of you should be alarmed by reason of your experience at the hands of the enemy who has retired, I hereby inform you that it is my desire that every person should pursue his lawful business without fear of interruption.

Furthermore, since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents of three of the great religions of mankind, and its soil has been consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout people of these three religions for many centuries, therefore do I make known to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer, of whatever form of the three religions, will be maintained and protected according the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred.

The above proclamation was made in December 1917 by English General Edmund Allenby, as the Allies completed their defeat of the Ottoman Empire, as well as of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Until that moment, Jerusalem had been under Turkish control for 400 years. Provides a bit of perspective, eh?

History repeats itself -- 3
Rather than expand on any single example, the following list of World War I-era developments suggests easily identifiable historic parallels.

• America's "Secret Service Agents" intercepted a German communication which offered financial support to Mexico, suggested that Mexico communicate with Japan (there was "friction between the U.S. and Japan"), and volunteered to help Mexico regain its territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
• The U.S. House of Representatives acted on the Intelligence support. The U.S. Senate demanded that the State Department "vouch for the authenticity" of the intercepted document.
• News report: German intelligence agents are entering the United States across the Mexican border. "If Japan ever undertook to invade the U.S., it would be through Mexico."
• News report: Mexico suggests that neutrals shut off exports of food and munitions to Britain and her Allies, the thought being that such an embargo, sanctions, would encourage the belligerents to work toward peace. 14 April 2005  

History repeating itself -- 2
"The Senate of the United States is the only legislative body in the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action. A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible."

That was President Woodrow Wilson speaking, after 12 senators (seven Republicans, five Democrats) -- demonstrating "pacifists' bitter animosity" -- prevented 75 other senators from passing legislation to authorize Wilson to arm American merchant ships to defend against Germany's submarine warfare against neutrals. Today, of course, the same impasse is preventing  up-or-down votes on President Bush's nominations for federal appellate court judges.

Wilson's suggested remedy: "There is but one remedy. The only remedy is that the rules of the Senate shall be so altered that it can act." Today, the debate is about the wisdom, or not, of implementing that "nuclear option" in the fight over judges.

On 08 March 1917, the Senate changed its rules and suspended "the right to unlimited debate" (read: filibuster). 

And the nation survived. 07 April 2005

Boy, does history ever repeat itself
The Congress versus the President: 1916
When Germany, on 01 March 1916, declared that her submarines would sink all armed merchant ships of the Allied Powers without warning, the focal point of the debate between isolationists and interventionists in the United States became the right, or not, of Americans to choose passage or to work on such ships. 

The polar positions were clear: 1) Americans have every right to book passage or serve as crew members on any ship they please, or 2) Americans should be forbidden to travel on any belligerent ships during the war. A secondary impasse was caused by controversy over the logic of attempting to restrict Germany's submarine warfare while approving Britain's blockade which was measurably beginning to starve Germany and which some influential internationalists considered illegal and immoral.

A now-forgotten fact is that much of American opinion back then was anti-British and pro-German, so much so that Germany felt it appropriate to suggest that the U.S. and Germany work together to break the British blockade. The split between President Woodrow Wilson and his Congressional opponents led by a Senator Gore, of Oklahoma, reached the point that Gore publicly accused Wilson of sneakily trying to get America into the war.

As it developed, Germany's submarine-behavior and its less than diplomatic exchange of messages with the United States swung opinion against it and helped avoid the embarrassment of the Congress officially disagreeing with the foreign policy of the President.

Even without the Senator Gore connection, does history repeat itself or what! 31 March 2005

Conspiracy Buffs & International Affairs
Either suspecting conspiracy or suggesting incompetence, Rice/Rumsfeld/Bush-haters insist that the Administration knew or should have known about the Nine-Eleven attacks.

Roosevelt-haters to this day contend that the President knew the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and kept quiet because he was looking for a casus belli to justify getting American into the war.

A few conspiracy-minded went further, saying that Winston Churchill learned about the pending Japanese attack, then a) told or b) did not tell Roosevelt. Whether you believe a or b depends on how much you hate(d) Roosevelt.  FJV 10 March 2005

Why shouldn't Iran go nuclear?
If you are Iranian when the world's only superpower dominates your country's eastern and western borders (Afghanistan and Iraq) . . .  and labels your country part of the "axis of evil" . . . and nearby, U.S.-backed Israel has nuclear arms . . . wouldn't it be irresponsible, even  suicidal, not to try to go nuclear?  FJV 03 March 2005

Domino Effect?
Let's see. Elections in Afghanistan and Iraq and Palestine and Ukraine. Proposed constitutional change in Egypt. Peaceful mass demonstrations in Lebanon. Arab television showing most of this. Any grudging acknowledgement that American foreign policy is causing these welcome developments will be accompanied by harping comments that will compare the good with the perfect.

It is in Lebanon that the "Arab streets" are speaking, not in the actions of the terrorists. Neither is concern about worldwide hostile Islamic revolution new. As World War I opened, those who feared taking on the Ottoman Empire warned that the "Mohammedans" would erupt into a "holy war" pitting the "colored" races against Europe. Oh, well, perhaps someday the perennial pessimists of the world will prove right.  FJV  03 March 2005

Classical Greece used homosexual couples in battle
Recent news reports suggest that the American Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy concerning homosexual personnel will be challenged legally. Both those who support and those who oppose the policy will be interested to learn that ancient Greece, where homosexuality "was common and attracted no negative comment," fielded an elite military corps made up exclusively of homosexuals.

The "Sacred Band of Thebes" -- 300 soldiers, specifically 150 homosexual couples -- for several decades, ended in 338 B.C., were considered the most proficient practitioners of the formidable Theban phalanx. The concept was that " . . . the desire to protect and impress one's lover would bring out the best fighting spirit in each soldier. No one would dishonor himself or his partner by fleeing battle and bringing shame upon them both."

Tradition has it that following his victory over the Greeks in a battle when the Sacred Band died to the last man, the Macedonian Phillip II commented, "Perish any man who suspects that these men did or suffered anything that was base."
Source: 100 Decisive Battles, by Paul K. Davis, Oxford University Press

A follow-up to earlier comments --
Did France ever like the United States?

So they don't love us anymore . . . 
More than two years before the Iraq War, Henry Kissinger wrote: "There is no serious effort to restore the U.N. inspection system; most of the international debate concentrates on easing or lifting the sanctions . . . Notably, Iraq seems to have become a test case for another French effort to define a European identity distinct from and in opposition to the United States." 

As all countries do, or should do, France puts her self-interest first. Over the centuries, she has allied herself with other Continental powers to fight England or with Russia and England to contain Germany or whatever alliance serves its purpose at the moment.

As a nineteenth century colonial power in Africa, France developed close relationships with Arab and Muslim leaders, using them to help control the black population. France went so far as to discourage Christian missions and to promote Islam to extend French power. Her African Empire was described by one historian as "the world's largest Moslem country."

It is not coincidental, therefore, that France currently disagrees with the U.S.'s automatic pro-Israel posture or that the French population's frequent disagreement with Israeli foreign policy is labeled anti-Semitic by some.

Nor is it coincidental that France is attempting to take the lead  in building a stronger, more independent European entity -- politically and militarily, as well as economically -- to counter America's dominance in all three of those arenas. (Voice leaves for another time the exploration of the pluses and minuses for the U.S. if Europe becomes stronger and independent.)

During our Civil War, Great Britain -- looking to its self-interest -- came close to recognizing the Confederate States as an independent country, and it stationed troops in Canada in anticipation of invading New England to help defeat the North.

Latin American countries cheered when the U.S. helped them break free from Spanish colonialism. Once independent, they became resentful of what they continue to call "dollar imperialism." Haiti wants U.S. Marines in or out, depending on the crisis-of-the moment.

At no time in U.S. history have we been universally loved. Even as we fought to help Great Britain survive and to free France, leaders in both those countries worked openly and behind the scenes to diminish our influence -- especially hoping to weaken our post-war impact on their pre-war designs. Voice has previously commented on Italians' lack of gratitude, since they perceived us to be acting in our self-interest when we rebuilt Europe after World War II.

All the above to help us remember that the U.S. should feel no guilt, after deliberation, for acting in our self-interest. We can afford to feel sadness and disappointment if other countries don't like us at a given moment, but knowing that these likes and dislikes come from centuries of cultural history, it is simplistic to blame current likes and dislikes on Bush -- or on Truman (supporting Greece and Turkey against the USSR) or on Eisenhower (threatening to use The Bomb to reach a Korean truce) or on Reagan (ignoring protest riots in Rome, Bonn, Paris and saving Europe by installing mid-range missiles on the Continent).

I suppose there were those who loved us more during Carter's administration when we lost Angola, lost Afghanistan, had hostages in Iran for over a year, were told to turn down the thermostat and wear sweaters, and were advised to stop seeing Communists under every bed. --17 June 2004