>Hi Fernando,
>
>IMHO, this article hit the nail(s) on the head.
>

I agree. One thing I think is kind of interesting, is essentially, the rest of the world wants us to "play politics". They don't want us really involved, but they want us to appear to be involved (and to involve them in this process). Even if (privately or publicly) everyone expects it to fail anyway. People say they "hate" politics, but the sad fact is that it's necessary. You can't deal with groups of people, or nations, without it. It must be some weird thing wired into our pyschie (sp?). I think Bush's primary problem right now is that he doesn't play the political game very well; the Texas, "no nonsense" attitude gets him into trouble. Personally, I can identify with it because I hate the political games. I wish people were much more direct with each other. However, that isn't the world we seem to live in:

"In diplomacy, style is often substance."

Arg...I hate that thinking, but it's definitely true. It doesn't matter what the cause is, people just get pi**ed when they aren't included in the decision making (whether it was the correct decision or not). I've seen this in action - we are selling a vertical market package into hospitals. The decision making process in them is based on reaching a consensus, which means it takes them FOREVER to come to make a decision (and is, I think, a primary reason why so many of them have financial problems). It's a microcosm of the rest of the world.

I also agree with the point made about the fact that we scare other countries. Case in point - we basically didn't need NATO support in Afghanistan:

"A few months later it toppled a regime 6,000 miles away—almost entirely from the air—in Afghanistan, a country where the British and Soviet empires were bogged down at the peak of their power..."

Yeah, I can understand how that might intimidate people (I personally know a few people who expected it to go much worse and were really surprised at our effectiveness). I can't think of anything that would help alleviate their anxiety (I'm sure it wouldn't be believed anyway)...

Dang, I really should just stay out of these discussions. I would, if I knew what was good for me ;-)

(back to lurking)