"U.S. policy has been to try to scare the rest of the world about Iran, and what we've missed is that the rest of the world is more scared of us. We've got to get them to be less afraid of us," said George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
I lifted the quote from a story in the Los Angeles Times.
I agree that our policy has been to scare the rest of the world about Iran, but I don't think we "missed" the fact that people are scared of us. Part of the reason 9/11 happened was our pre-Bush policy of no response or a miniscule response to terrorist attacks against Americans. Whether it was the first WTC bombing, the African embassy bombings, the USS Cole, or the others, our response was to do nothing or only send a few cruise missiles from a safe distance. This sent a message that we don't take terrorism seriously, or lack the will to stand up for ourselves.
Afghanistan and Iraq made the right sorts of countries fear us, and that's terrific. Had the Taleban feared us a bit more, they may not have harbored an arch criminal like Osama bin Laden. In retrospect, would the Taleban have harbored Bin Laden if they knew it would cost them their power, money, country, and lives?
