9/09/2004 01:09:00 PM|||Joe|||Again, a basic problem with conservatism is cast in stark light by the way we're dealing with Russia.

The facet with conservatism I'm thinking of right now is the paternal tendencies. That is, that what an authority figure (the U.S., the president, etc.) does is by definition correct. I don't think anyone holds that view fanatically and to logical extemes, but strains of it are certainly present.

Right now it's cropping up in regard to the Russia/Chechnya situation. Apparently we're trying to tell Russia how to handle it. We're telling them to be diplomatic.

Where do we get the gall? We, who arbitrarily deal countries we deem to be in some way terroristic. We invaded Iraq, but not North Korea. We should be seriously concerned with Saudi Arabia, but we've done nothing about them. We blew the hell out of Afghanistan, and now we've effectively abandoned it.

And we presume to give advice to Putin on how to deal with their neighbors?

The only way I can make sense of this apparently inconsistent behavior is that we think it's ok for us to do certain things because our country is in a position of authority in the world (because of our military). So what we say goes. That's all I can think.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think our advice to deal with root problems is incorrect. I think it's dead on. But why don't we take that advice ourselves? Our solution to terror in the middle east was to invade Iraq?

The problem is the reaction of particular islamic extremists to our country's military and economic policies in the middle east. We can't seem to figure that out, so we invade country after country, and wonder why each country seems to be headed to all-out civil war.

Why can't we take our own damn advice?|||109476060926967077|||Root Causes