I hate when other nations speak badly of America just like any other red-blooded American–but you have to call a spade a spade. There is no question that this nation’s irresponsible use of military force in the last few years has caused great damage to our reputation and made the world a much more dangerous place.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, speaking on Saturday at a security policy conference in Munich, used the strongest words heard in years from a Russian head of state regarding the United States:
“Unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem, they have become a hotbed of further conflicts…One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way…It is a world of one master, one sovereign. … It has nothing to do with democracy. This is nourishing the wish of countries to get nuclear weapons. This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.”
I’m no fan of Putin’s, as I think he behaves like a bandit in negotiating fossil fuel supplies with his neighbors and Europe–but that doesn’t detract from the truth of what he’s saying. It is no coincidence that it is two of the three remaining countries in Bush’s “Axis of Evil” that are now actively pursuing nuclear weapons. Can you blame them? They saw what happened to their “Axis” partner Iraq, and as Iran looks across the Iraqi border it sees the US itching for a fight (not that Iran is blameless, and they might even deserve a good bombing in response to their meddling and arming of insurgents in Iraq). But of course we would not be at such cross-purposes with Iran now if we had not so foolishly exerted American power in Iraq, which now will have serious regional consequences that we probably will not control.
Ironically it has been Bush’s so called push for democracy and his pre-emptive method of seeking American security that have made the world a far more dangerous place for our interests. If the leader of the free world cannot be made to stick to international law, why should anyone else observe it either? A world where nobody feels safe from the abuse of military power is a dangerous one indeed.
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