(no subject)

[dlgood]

Comments re:Anti-American sentiment and US diplomacy by Stephen Holmes of NYU Law. Emphasis mine.

We should not assume, without looking into it, that anti-Americanism will necessarily affect our national interests. Indeed, hatred of the U.S. should concern our national-security community only if it galvanizes individuals and groups with the capacity to harm us, either positively, by inflicting grave injuries, or negatively, by withholding the cooperation on which we depend to solve our most urgent problems. The latter method of inflicting damage merits special emphasis. WMD proliferation and offshore plotting by terrorist cells may or may not require active sponsorship by rogue states. But they can both benefit decisively from slovenly oversight by disorganized, distracted and incompetent states. Public officials around the world can inflict the most serious imaginable damage on the U.S. by simply being negligent. And negligence, it so happens, comes effortlessly to most human beings.

Man. Is that last sentence, not the most beautiful line. Negligence comes effortlessly. Yeah. It sure does.

Comments

Re: I’d say you’d better learn to quote better

[klast.livejournal.com]

The counter, isn't to "show" those people that they're Wrong. They already know. They've already contemplated going forward anyway. The counter, is to show them that it's not going to work. That it's going to cause more problems than it prevents. It takes away the justification upon which the policy is based. If people care at all, they can be swayed.

But can you think of diligent negligence?

So how does alienating Europeans affect US if the issue is negligence? Does anyone really believe they will become diligent on behalf of the US when they are not so on their own behalf?

Am I missing the point here because I don’t see a point.
Further, liking the US or not is beside the point. There is a confluence of interest between the US and Europeans on the issue of terrorism and WMD. Some may dislike the US but they are not about to shoot themselves in the foot. That's realism too. Hence post Madrid bombings Chirac and Schroeder did not sign on to Zapatero's anti-US rhetoric and snubbed his actions as unhealthy appeasement.