[Peace-discuss] Robert Wright @ The Atlantic: Ron Paul looks at US foreign policy from the perspective of the Other

[Robert Naiman]

Indeed, anyone can do it, and we all should; not just in case of Iran,
but in other cases. But Ron Paul could be taking it to a new level,
simply because he has a very big public megaphone right now. Being a
serious candidate for President gives you a very big megaphone. It's
one thing to have this conversation about US foreign policy, when you
can consider it from the point of view of the other. It's another
thing to have it within earshot of the broad public.

That video about Chinese troops in Texas? When I shared it, it had
98,000 views on YouTube. Now it has 760,423 views.
http://youtu.be/XKfuS6gfxPY

By the way, there was a very nice example the other day of the broad
public seeing US foreign policy from the point of view of the Other.
The mother of the last US soldier killed in Iraq said, I'm not going
to say whether his sacrifice was worth it, because "Only the Iraqi
people can answer that."

NC soldier, 23, was last US troop killed in Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/nc-soldier-23-last-us-troop-killed-iraq-145741944.html


On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Carl G. Estabrook
<galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
> Others can do it too.
>
> Martin Levi van Creveld is an Israeli military historian and theorist. In
> the August 21, 2004 edition of the International Herald Tribune van Creveld
> wrote,
>
> "Had the Iranians not tried to build nuclear weapons, they would be crazy."
>  --CGE
>
>
>
> On Jan 11, 2012, at 10:22 AM, Robert Naiman wrote:
>
>> [...]
>> Paul is making one contribution to the foreign policy debate that
>> could have enduring value. It doesn't lie in the substance of his
>> foreign policy views (which I'm largely but not wholly in sympathy
>> with) but in the way he explains them. Paul routinely performs a
>> simple thought experiment: He tries to imagine how the world looks to
>> people other than Americans.
>>
>> This is such a radical departure from the prevailing American mindset
>> that some of Paul's critics see it as more evidence of his weirdness.
>> A video montage meant to discredit him shows him taking the
>> perspective of Iran. After observing that Israel and America and China
>> have nukes, he asks about Iranians, "Why wouldn't it be natural that
>> they'd want a weapon? Internationally they'd be given more respect."
>>
>> Can somebody explain to me why this is such a crazy conjecture about
>> Iranian motivation? Wouldn't it be reasonable for Iranian leaders,
>> having seen what happened to nukeless Saddam Hussein and nukeless
>> Muammar Qaddafi, to conclude that maybe having a nuclear weapon would
>> get them more respectful treatment?
>> [...]
>>
>>
>> http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/the-radical-imagination/250915/
>>
>> --
>> Robert Naiman
>> Policy Director
>> Just Foreign Policy
>> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>



-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org