What is Douglas Alexander talking about?
James Forsyth 8:38amDouglas Alexander’s speech in Washington last night is being portrayed as distancing Gordon Brown’s administration from George W. Bush’s post 9/11 foreign policy. Particular importance is being attached to this passage: "In the 20th century a country's might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured by what we can build together.”
If this intended as a criticism of the Bush administration, it is ignorant in the extreme. After 9/11, the United States did not go on some Shermanesque march to the sea. Instead, it set about a phenomenally ambitious project to build democracies in parts of the world where they had never succeeded before. Indeed, the criticism could be that it tried to build too much too quickly.
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JH
July 13th, 2007 9:50amAlexander doesn't seem to notice that in the 20th century the might of the English speaking nations was measured in what it could protect.
david
July 13th, 2007 11:45amAmbitious doesn't always mean good tho does it? And good intentions don't justify endless bloody murder!
If a man sets out with the admirable and ambitious intention of cheering up a depressed friend, but in doing so steam-rollers his house, kills his dog, insults his wife leaves the friend more suicidal than before -- neither his ambition nor his altruism would get him off the hook.
A jury would rightly consider him stupid and brutal and expect him to pay damages.