What's Foreign Policy, Anyway?

   There's a substantial number of people in this country who are convinced we're making a mistake by not orchestrating the Arab Spring more in our favor. It looks like these folks think America has the total respect and fear of the entire world. That has to be their thinking, if in fact they are thinking, because if we didn't have that kind of influence, we'd be just another super-power.
   But here's the thing. If we had that kind of power, we'd have won the hearts and minds of all Iraq, the Taliban and AlQaida in Afghanistan and the military and civilian government in Pakistan. When we told Assad in Syria to leave, he would have. Same for our man in Egypt and Qaddafi would have left years ago.
   The thing is, we don't have that kind of respect or influence in the world and haven't had it for many many years. Oh, it's true that no country wants to go toe to toe with us, but many countries and terrorist organizations aren't afraid to go at us covertly. As far back as Viet Nam. Even at the end of WWII, when we were at our strongest and most feared and respected in the world, even then little North Korea wasn't afraid to tangle with us.
   No, I'm not sure we were ever feared or respected enough to force other countries to do as we say, not as we do. That's because, in our gut, we never felt we should. We were never a schoolyard bully. We never got into the practice of trying to force other people to do as we say, unless they picked the fight first. And we were never very good at building countries, except our own.
   Now there's a mistake we have made. Building nations is not within our field of expertise. But then it's never really been in anyone's field of expertise to build other nations. Hey, it's hard enough to try building your own. No, we've not been good at bullying. I hope it stays that way. How about you?