[Reed B.]

Moral diplomacy is such a wonderful concept, isn't it?
Unfortunately, as Woodrow Wilson found out, it doesn't work. Take North Korea. They promised not to build any nukes if we gave them money, and gee, guess what they did.

I saw an online cartoon once. In the first panel, it showed Colin Powell and a Middle Eastern man sitting down and discussing their problems. In the second panel, it showed Colin Powell trying to talk while the ME man screamed "JIHAD! JIHAD!"
The second panel was reality, unfortunately.

The truth is, that America is not liked for who we are. We COULD conform to the way the rest of the world wants us to conform, particularly some sections of the Middle East, but frankly I don't think everyone wants to be forcibly converted to Islam, nor do women want to be forced to wear burqas and stoned for adultery.

Also, while some countries do have legitimate grievances with the US (Turkey lost 10 billion dollars in trade with Iraq during the Gulf War), a lot of them give their countrymen excuses to hate something else. I don't like the royalty of Saudi Arabia, because they're shooting their country straight down the john.

With Iraq, however, I'd like nothing more than to see Saddam die a slow, painful death. However, unless the White House has hard evidence against Saddam, I believe that North Korea should be dealt with first.

As far as playing big brother goes: most countries whine about our influence, yet when something happens, they scream at us to do something about it.