Take a look at this fine speech by retired US Ambassador Chas Freeman about public diplomacy and, well, everything else: Why Not Let Them Hate Us, as long as They Fear Us?
It seems like every day, a new angry retired foreign service or military officer comes out of the woodwork. I know from personal experience many serving ones also agree.
(Thanks, Simon.)
Reads like a fairly standard-issue lefty rant about the war – but interesting that it comes from the sort of person it does.
It’s ironic that a “regional transformation” project that was (in principle) about applying American ideals of democracy and freedom more robustly in US dealings in the Middle East has ended up being a case study of fear-and-hate foreign policy, as in this article. I guess it was always “do as we say not as we do” for the neocons – very Bolshy.