Foreign Policy Myths Progressives Need to Let Go Of

The new, but excellent progressive foreign policy blog Democracy Arsenal featuring five real, honest to goodness Democratic foreign policy experts is always worth reading. But I particularly found this top 10 list insightful:

Top 10 Myths Progressives Need to Let Go Of to Regain the Upper Hand on Foreign Policy
1. Americans like and care about the UN
2. Americans want to be liked/don’t want to be seen as a global bully
3. Americans care about alliances for their own sake
4. A progressive foreign policy is reconcilable with protectionism
5. Either the left or the center will get a foreign policy platform it is reasonably happy with
6. America is a dangerous force in the world/does more bad than good
7. Americans can fully appreciate abstract threats
8. The failures in Iraq will push ordinary Americans toward a progressive foreign policy
9. We’re up against a tradition of passivity and pacifism in our own ranks
10. The U.S.’s challenges in the Middle East are primarily caused by our policy toward Israel

Check out the post to see the explanations for each of these. And notice how the next blogger disagrees slightly with 1, 2 and 4.

For myself, I somewhat disagree with #6. America is a dangerous force in the world. But I agree with the second half, we don't do more bad than good. But we are dangerous and we should never forget it. To quote Gandalf:

Yet a treacherous weapon is ever a danger to the hand.

Dangerous! And so am I, very dangerous: more dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought alive before the seat of the Dark Lord. And Aragorn is dangerous, and Legolas is dangerous. You are beset with dangers, Gimli son of Gloin; for you are dangerous yourself, in your own fashion.

Say also, that to crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face.

Dangerous does not mean bad, but to pretend America is not dangerous is foolish.

Health Care Satisfaction and Expense

Does the U.S. have the best health care system in the world, as often stated by conservatives? What do the people think? Check out these statistics:

Country	Satisfaction	Cost per Capita
Denmark	91%	$1940
Finland	81%	$1539
Austria	73%	$1960
Netherlands	70%	$1911
Luxembourg	67%	$1985
France	65%	$2125
Belgium	63%	$1738
Ireland	58%	$1200
Germany	58%	$2365
Sweden	58%	$1943
UnitedKingdom	57%	$1193
Canada	46%	$1836
Spain	43%	$1211
UnitedStates	40%	$3724

All that money for so little satisfaction. Sad, really. On the other hand, maybe we shouldn't count the 40 million Americans without insurance in these statistics, since they don't actually participate in our health care system they have no idea if it is good or bad. Yea, that's the ticket.

(Via, Kevin Drum)

Rumsfeld Visits Iraqi Leaders

I see that Rumsfeld recently visited the Iraqi leaders.



I'm glad he made the trip, it's important for our high ranking officials to share a little face time with the elected officials in Iraq. But I can't help but be reminded of another trip Rumsfeld made to Iraq to talk to the Iraqi leaders. You know, that one where he met Saddam Hussein to normalize US/Iraqi relationships during the Iran-Iraq war, the one where Saddam used chemical weapons. Actually, it was two trips, one an 1983 and another the following year.

Hopefully, the result of this trip will have a happier ending than the result of that other one. I'm an optimist, I'm sure it will.

PG-13

This is old news, perhaps, but I just noticed that Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith will be PG-13, the first Star Wars movie to not be rated at just PG. I'll take this as a good sign that maybe, just maybe this one won't disappoint as much as I and II. Every few years Lucas manages to excite my ten year old heart only to disappoint my almost forty year old brain. Sigh. The trailer sure looks cool, though, doesn't it?

(Or check out the captioned trailer here, if you need it translated to teenage, IM talk.)