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‘If I Had to Do It Over Again’
Perhaps, but Rice is also representative of a tradition of American nation building by trial and error—one of which she herself is acutely aware. That's one of the reasons she often harks back to how difficult it was to develop a cold war strategy "in this building between 1946 and 1953," she says. Too many commentators tend to think that good outcomes in the past—like the successful conclusion of the cold war—were inevitable, when in fact they were often developed piece by piece, feeling one's way in the dark. The same is true of the rebuilding of a peaceful Europe and Asia after World War II, which came about after many false starts, she notes. "Of course France and Germany would never fight again," Rice said facetiously, referring to the now-conventional wisdom that these two longtime enemies would make up, as they did under U.S. guidance after World War II. "Of course it was going to turn out with democratic-aligned Japan and South Korea where we would be partners in Asia. Of course it was going to work that you would get through failed reconstruction in Europe in 1947. Of course you'd rearm Germany and then France would not fight by creating this thing called NATO … This is the way big historical events unfold, and they tend to be pretty messy and difficult." Or as Winston Churchill once remarked, "The Americans will always do the right thing—after they have exhausted all the alternatives."
© 2007
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Member Comments
Posted By: thisisnotamerica @ 12/14/2007 11:36:01 AM
Comment: 2 + 2 =5
Posted By: brdbndt @ 11/14/2007 10:45:22 AM
Comment: Pop,
A small correction here. I am reducing everything to behavior, based upon peoples opinions and beliefs. Whenever the truth is told about republican scandals I become dissatisfied with the behavior and values of the individual involved, not the party. I do not blame the problem on the obvious (and self proclaimed by the Times) liberal bias in the media, I blame the problem on corrupted values and behavior. You are right of course, the Liberal bias is trying to change our American rights and values and make us more like Europe and the UK. If we wanted to be like them, we would have never left. If you have read the posts here, they are mostly hatred and bigotry spewing forth from malcontents. What ever happened to all the Liberals who were so angry they were going o move to Canada after Pres Bush was elected. Did they move? no, me thinks not. They showed up here with their never ending epitaphs of disillusionment. The sad truth is that there are people in the world that hate us. They always have and always will, no mattter who our president is. That doesn't mean that we have to join them by trashing America and her policies. What that means is we change our government by electing new people to replace the ones we disagree with. It's called being proactive rather than reactive, rational rather than emotional, and constructive rather than critical and destructive. The answer isn't to give this country away to everyone because they say they deserve it, the answer is to earn the right to manage it because you belong to it, not because it belongs to you. In disagreement with you, I am not angry at our government, it has become what we have allowed to to be. I am just sick and tired of hearing everyone complain and blame others because it isn't the way they want it to be. As for our President, I support him until there is another, and then I will give him respect too... until the next election. Then I will determine if I support him. As for the country this has been for 230 years, try not to forget that it was founded on conservative, Judaeo/Christian values and we ought not to get too far from them if we want to remain who we are, brdbndt
Posted By: Nikon @ 11/10/2007 1:58:44 PM
Comment: Did the press understand Iraq? We get our news - filtered - by the press, not "Washington."
If it was so glaringly obvious about the tribal makeup of Iraq since Saddam's days, why wasn't the press reporting the mistake since Gulf War 1.
Maybe the press didn't have a clue either.