"The superpowers image has been battered during the George Bush years.
The shambolic election in 2000 injected poison into the boastful
democracy. A proud military tradition was diminished by a disastrous
invasion of Iraq, squandering the great outpourings of global sympathy
after the September 11 attacks. America's legal heritage was debased
by prison horrors in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, while Washington's
dismal response to hurricane Katrina only served to compound opinion
polls showing global respect for Americans at near record lows."

This is the face you present to the world, this is what you are judged
on. I am sad that it is so, you are capable of so much more than this.

Andrew VK3BFA.

Just one thing to keep in mind here, Andrew: We know more about it, and
care
less about it, than you may think. g

We know what's going on with our country. We also know that most of the
world really doesn't, but they rub their hands with glee every time
something goes wrong here. So we take all of that with a grain of salt. It
really means almost nothing here.

Except for one thing: It's important that we be able to work cooperatively
with other major countries, especially our old allies, and we have a lot
of
repair work to do with international relations after Bush is gone. That's
one reason a lot of us favor Obama, who would come in riding a wave of
adoration from around the world. But even if McCain is elected, we'll be a
lot better off.

The "outpouring of global sympathy" was a flash in the pan. We knew it at
the time; it couldn't last in the face of the resentment that inevitably
accrues to a sole superpower. We got about a month's worth of "sympathy"
out
of it, but sympathy is not what was needed. What was needed was a
cooperative, overwhelming, international agreement about how to combat
that
kind of terrorism, and a commensurate effort. For the most part, what the
world (and we) got was lip service and tokenism.

--
Ed Huntress


This is a case where actions have consequences. Except for a few countries
the US is pretty much hated around the world. This opinion didn't just
happen in a vacuum. We made a lot of moves all over the world and most of
the world took exception to our actions. Now we have to live with what we
did. We can ignore the rest of the world and thumb our noses and say they
don't matter but as we have learned we are part of the world community. When
we act like overly aggressive assholes we are not going to be popular.
Nobody likes us anymore. Can we change that? Sure, but we have to change. If
we get another republican president don't expect much to change except for
things to get worse. After all, continuing policies that have failed in the
past is likely to bring the same outcomes. The nation is at a crossroads
here. Either we take the fork in the road and go another direction or we
stay on the course we've been following for eight years. I can't imagine how
much worse it'll be with another term with an old republican in charge. I
hope I don't have to witness how bad it'll be.

Hawke