We are not "shaking in our boots," not at all. Some of us have been in the trenches, fighting collectivist ideology, and fought this sloganized nonsense in the 1960s, when misuse of the same terms, "Freedom and Democracy" was being espoused by the Dean Rusk State Department, and spreading havoc across much of Africa. We also understand why General Washington, who feared no man, advocated a very different approach to other Nations.
No, Sir. We are not "shaking in our boots." We are outraged. There is a very significant difference! Learn to live with it.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
Bravo! But, don't you understand, it isn't the same as the Soviets imposing Communism on other countries. We are better people. It's all about the motive. These people just don't know any better so we will be paternalistic and help them find the true path in the new American order. This is almost the foreign policy equivalent of hate crimes legislation and is sort of the logical extension of the recent Supreme Court decision regarding conspiracies, i.e. that you don't have to take a concrete action toward forwarding the goal of the conspiracy in order to be guilty. Now, you don't actually have to take a threatening action against the US. You just have to think bad thoughts. In any case, it still remains to be seen how global this new policy is. After all, the original Bush doctrine of being able to defend yourself against terrorism doesn't apply to Israel. And as I've said before, you can be certain that we won't be dumping those beacons of "democracy" (China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia) any time soon. We are too dependent on China to make too many waves about human rights abuses, Pakistan is still carrying on the half-hearted hunt for bin Laden and Saudi Arabia has all that nice oil. However, just the proposition of such an interventionalist foreign policy is troubling, not to mention the sheep mentality of Republicans in endorsing it.
Learn to live with what?
Shaking in your boots? Or your outrage at President Bush's speech declaring support for freedom?
Apparently we are the minority. It's A brave new world. Global democratic revolution is the rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching towards Bethlehem to be born.