Briefing 2.0 (12/10/2008): Answer to Jim

I'm glad that the State Department is offering this Q&A program and I hope that the next administration is wise enough to continue it. That said, I wish that State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack would have better articulated exactly what the US considers to be its interests. This is not a subject for vagaries, but a subject that demands an explicit statement of what are and are not considered to be American interests.

... Paramount to freedom, however, is not democracy. It's law, law protecting the right of a person to live, to think, to act, and to the product thereof. In short, freedom is a fantastic goal, but Democracy is not the answer.

~Amanda Carlson, Arizona

... In a society where individual rights and the rule of law aren't previously upheld, the Democratic method is a collective dictator with little difference to a single dictator. If America really wishes a prosperous and free world in which to trade and grow then we must first secure an iron-clad Republic which at its core respects and defends the sovereign rights of individuals. The Democratic method merely gives citizens the opportunity to make adjustments to fit changing situations ...

Thank you, I commend the State Dept. on their goal of effecting a more prosperous and civilized world by promoting free market systems. It does bother me however that people, including the State Dept. apparently, believe that a free economy and a just society are ensured by Democracy as such. They are not, nothing can be ensured by Democracy. It is the rule of the majority, which can become anything.

cont...

Also, for a unofficial correct application of the principle of national interests, see Peter Schwartzs _The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America_.

In general, I do extend my compliments to Assistant Secretary McCormack for accurately articulating an official State Dept. position on American national interests.

Given brief comments, I will wait to post a response vid with extended positive and negative criticism of this statement.

In the interim, a more expansive official U.S. official statement on this issue is available in A National Security Strategy for a Global Age (Dec. 2000), produced by the Clinton White House. Google the title to find the test.

The question was not answered.

Im shocked