Americans are not good at seeing things from the point of view of other countries. We tend to assume that anything we do must be right or OK, since we are “good,” and any country that does things that are not in our best interest must be ”bad.” This is a highly oversimplified view of people, countries, and politics. If we give ourselves permission to do things that are not in the best interest of other countries, then we must, in fairness, give them the right to do things that are not in our best interest. We can dislike some of those actions and try to get other countries to change those actions, but we have no right to say that we are always right. it is important for our integrity as a country that we base our positions and actions on clear moral positions, and subverting other governments takes a good deal of moral discussion.
Since we do what is in our best interest, as we see it, if that harms other countries, then we should take that harm seriously and try to avoid it.
Since we do what is in our best interest, it is appropriate for other countries to fear us at times. There is no reason that they should always trust us, since they can count on us to do what is in our best interest even if it is not in theirs. It makes sense for other countries to have their own nuclear weapons, for example, since they can’t ultimately count on us. We think, and most other countries think, that the best thing we can do to prevent nuclear destruction is to prevent other countries from getting them, and I tend to agree with this general position, but we have no moral right to condemn them for getting nuclear weapons, since we don’t give up our nuclear weapons. In fact, as President I would maintain an adequate nuclear arsenal, while continuing to try to get all countries to reduce their numbers of nuclear weapons through treaties.
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