BRINK MAKERS?
We have been accused recently of practicing a type of brinkmanship diplomacy by which we are said to create fields of tension in an area so we can have a pretext for invasion and forced intervention in local affairs “to prevent disaster,”
That is quite charge to bring against any nation, yet I have heard citizens of this nations of ours who agree with that estimate of our foreign policies.
Do we deserve any such accusation? Do people in foreign lands, and their governments, see us in such a warped light?
This is given as a “reason: why we should not be -well, where we are. It seems to have a universal application which is the very quality which brings it under suspicion. The “one-size-fits-all” under mines the concept from the start.
No world area of conflict is that simple. They are, instead , often one of a kind situations which have long haunted the areas in which they become manifest. Long held rivalries well up and roil the placid waters of local politics, often to the determent of all concerned.
When such events “re-occur” in modern dress, we as the leading nation of the world, with our allies, forming the most powerful national bloc - are expected to do something about it.
Such awaited action is usually thought of in terms of favoritism, money, concessions, military equipment, technological assistance and, only rarely, in any form of arbitration or guidance.
We have a curious puritanic ethic in our nation which is either non-existence or rarely used in other countries. We tend to be willing to try to help others manage affair which have gotten out of hand. In doing so, we become involved, which often leads to misunderstandings and, at times, to those frictions which can lead to conflict. We have learned the hard way in several that such simplistic treatment of problems, however simple, honest and straight forward work they may be, seldom work as planned.
Photographs of starving, emaciated children virtually covered with teeming clouds of flies and patches of vermin, can sway the heart, mind and pocketbook of millions of Americans, but - at he same time - leave other nationalities untouched.. It is possible that you did not even notice that this year's annual starvation time in Ethiopia went by almost unnoticed due to our preoccupation with the needs of people in the mid-east and other areas.
Our work is very often mis-read and thus, misunderstood. Gifts are seen as bribes; aid as arms and ammo entirely, human rights as undertaking revolutionary activities, and loans are seen as links in a chain of entrapment we are said to be planning under the guise of compassionate assistance.
We do create social unrest when we move in to help. We treat rather than cure. We suggest rather than demand. We urge rather than order. The whole concept often strikes the recipients as being far too good to be true and we are hurt - even angered - when it backfires on us occasionally.
No, we are not brink makers. Most of the time, we don't even see such potential threats as being hazardous.
A.L.M. August 24, 2003 [c526wds]
