The Opinionated Bastard

America's intentions are neither totally selfish, nor totally altruistic. The best we can really say is that we tend to be on the altruistic side more then the selfish side. That's because for us, as the leading democracy, our long term interests are served by promoting prosperity and freedom. So altruism is for us, selfish. In term of the Middle East, we get accused of being more selfish then altruistic, and that's quite true looking backwards. But if you're going to look backwards, realize that America was fighting a Cold War against Russia for the last 50 years. Our choice to support Israel (really made by the British just before they gave up on their empire) pushed many muslim nations into the Soviet camp. And now they complain because America has a low opinion of muslim nations. You pick the losing side, things don't work out so well for you. You don't like that we supported Israel? Name some other Middle Eastern democracies. Besides, if you don't want Jews living in your neighborhood, don't sell them the land. (80% of Israel was bought from Arab nations.) Anyways, based on Bush's recent speeches, it seems that now that the Cold War is well and truly over, we seem to be shifting more towards "values" diplomacy, and away from "power" diplomacy. That's a good thing, even if it does seem hard to believe that the first two things that accompanied this shift was the invasion of too other countries.