>It is worth mentioning that public approval or disapproval does not necessarily indicate wisdom, one way or the other. Referendum is interesting, but not entirely the best way to form policy. i am not saying that approval or disapproval of the public - either foreign or domestic - is unimportant, only that it can't be the only factor in deciding extremely complex questions - especially when they are life and death issues.
I largely agree. Pure direct democracies don't work because of the reasons you describe above. However, approval and disapproval, esspecially from forreign countries is something not to be ignored.
>
>>>>>>John, AFAICS, it is the other way arround. The Bush government has insulted and irritated the rest of the world. I've given you enough links to get educated on why the image of the US in the world outside has shrunk inmensely during the last 8 years. You can choose to ignore that fact and choose it accuse me from insults, but the facts don't lie. Every study held spanning many countries and hundreds of thousands of people being interviewed show that the image of the US has gone down tremendously. In most of those investigation it is indicated that one of the major the reasons for this is the policy of the Bush administration and that they took every opportunity to hurt this image (Iraq, abu ghrail, cuba, extraordinary renditions (and at the same time complain about human rights in china), secret CIA camps in europe, katrina and economic mismanagement).
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>>>>>
>>>>>How educated are Europeans on the Clinton adminstration's role in
extraordinary renditions?>>>>
>>>>I guess not, since it only became public under the bush administration.
>>>
>>>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101900835_pf.html>>>
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/extraordinaryrendition/22203res20051206.html>>
>>Interesting.... However it does not really matter the public disapproves the extraordinary renditions durring the Bush administration and hold them responsible for it. Whether it was practised (on a more limited frequency) before bush entered office does not really matter. The public disapproves it.
