Pulling up the drawbridge

John B. Judis, writing at Talking Points Memo while Josh Marshall is on vacation:

During the Cold War, American officials discovered that one of the best ways to promote democratic capitalism at the expense of communism was by luring foreign students to American colleges. Some of these foreign graduates returned home to become the leaders of reform movements in their countries. Others stayed in the United States and contributed their skills to the great postwar boom. The same reasoning that prevailed during the Cold War should prevail during the war on terror. The United States should be eager, one would imagine, to expose students from abroad to democracy and religious pluralism, as well as to take advantage of their skills. But not the Bush administration and the Republican Congress. They are oblivious to any foreign policy measures that aren't repressive. Their response to anti-Americanism is to wall off America from its potential critics...

Winning the hearts and minds of the world.

How responsbible do you feel for what our government is doing?
In case anyone hasn't been over to Cassandra Pages lately, there's a great discussion going on in Beth's posts and in the comments about politics and individual responsibility - how responsible do we feel about what our government does and what do we feel we can or can't do about it. It starts here and continues in the most recent posts.

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The maze and amaze of life*

                                   You are here.

* From a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

9:22:47 PM      trackback [] 

Cucurucho

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