In the best interest of who?
The question is, Should the US act in the best interest of itself or of the world as a whole? The two candidates have completey opposing answers to this question. Kerry speak of a world coalition that we must have before we decide to do anything. If we do not have the complete backing and support from the UN countries and if they are not willing to put in as much (labor and financial) as the US, then we should not go. He believes we should act in the best interest of the world. Bush on the other hand, believes that we should act solely in the best interest of the American people as opposed to the world. He said something like, we should not try to be popular in the globe when it isn't in the best interest of the American peopls." He basically means that sometimes it is best to look out for number one, and if you make everyone else mad, then that is too bad. I believe in that attitude. You can not base your decsion of what you believe is right for you on the oppinion of other people that have no idea where you are coming from. That is why sympathy and empathy have total different meanings. It is difficult to get people to feel passionately about a cause that does not directly affect you like terrorism has affected us. I am not saying that Bush has done everything to deal with this correctly, I am just saying that I believe more in his theory than in Kerry's. You can not back down on something that is important to you just because everyone else doesn't believe in your decision. Popularity is not everything. You can expect people to fight equally with you on something that you are definately more passionate about- they won't and can't put the same amount of umf into that you can. It works on a personal level, why can't it work politically?