When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. — 2004

My Take – To be honest, I don’t care about the respect of the world.   OK, I hope that countries with which  we share common values, such as Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, and some of the new democracies in Eastern Europe, respect us, but I think that’s an easy one.  It’s easy to respect someone when you have a lot in common with them.

As for the rest of the world, I couldn’t care less about whether they respect us, much less love us.  Our foreign policy for a long time has been “Hey, we’re nice guys!  Look at all the shiny hardware and food we brought.  Now please like us.  Pretty please!”.  I guess that’s partly because we’re still doing the things we did to compete for hearts and minds during the Cold War, and some of it is because Americans, at least a lot of the time, see their role as the world’s last best hope and want to prove that to everyone.

Me?  I’m tired of pouring money into kleptocratic sinkholes.  I’m tired of watching flag draped coffins get unloaded off of airplanes.  And I’m tired of watching the American flag get burnt by people who wouldn’t be able to feed their children if not for the largess of the American people.  If I were President, my foreign aid policy would pretty much be “For our true friends, we will give the shirts off our backs.  Everyone else pays cash.”.    As for our foreign policy toward those who don’t respect us and we hold a reciprocal feeling, I say it’s better to be feared than respected.   I guess my idea boils down to “No better friend; no worse enemy”, or for those of you who watch MSNBC, “Leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone.  Raise a hand to us, and we will cut off your arm.”.  Americans truly are a peace loving people, but killing people and breaking stuff is something at which we’re very adept, and if someone can’t respect us for the good we do, then they should tremble at our ability to turn their place into a parking lot.