President Kennedy Predicted Our Times ...
I just read the article in Salon "Obama/Kennedy vs. McCain/Goldwater" by David Talbot.
I was struck by the following quotation of John F. Kennedy describing what would happen if we took the posture which President Bush does:
... Kennedy, in a September 1963 speech before a conservative Mormon audience in Salt Lake City: "We must realize that foreign policy in the modern world does not lend itself to easy, simple black and white solutions. If we were to have diplomatic relations only with those countries whose principles we approve of, we would have relations with very few countries in a very short time ... If we were to treat foreign policy merely as a medium for delivering self-righteous sermons to supposedly inferior people, we would give up all thought of world influence or world leadership."
I can't imagine a more apt description of the Bush Administration than treating "foreign policy as a medium for delivering self-righteous sermons ..." Our enemies list has grown rapidly because we've expressed disapproval of other nations principles - usually only because they differ from our stated principles.




