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Just some thoughts for consideration.......Unfortunately, it seems to me that many of you have been rather shortsighted and politically selective in your criticism of US presidential administrations for funding and supporting currently unfriendly regimes in the world. Need I remind you all of our support for Saddam, the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan (which produced Al-Qaeda), others in Latin America like Pinochet, African leaders such as Mubarak. It's not like the US hasn't made it's fair share of bad choices when supporting certain leaders in the world. We act out of self interest at the time and fail to see what might be produced out of our actions. Then those who oppose a particular administration or party selectively choose which ones to criticize as "one of the greatest mistakes in US foreign policy history." I think it is incredibly unfair, uninformed, and frankly, un-American to not try to see the "big picture" of our country's actions. If we don't try to do this as citizens, we will be aiding what many see as the destruction of our country's current world power status. From how many of you write, it does not seem that you either believe this is possible, or want it to happen.

Additionally, regarding the criticism I continue to see regarding Putin, I argue that this is ill-informed as well. How many of you have talked to the Russians to find out what they think of him? Americans don't like him because he creates his own foreign policies and refuses to be used as a puppet of our government. What's wrong with that and acting in what he sees as the best interest of his country? Maybe before criticizing other leaders, we should be putting ourselves in their shoes to determine if their actions are rational. I'd argue his are. The comparisons to the former communist leasers is simply ridiculous. Russians support Putin, his strong central government, and the stability it brings them. Putin is much better than the chaos created by Yeltsin. At least under Putin inflation is under control; Russia is experiencing economic growth, and Russians don't worry about whether or not they can afford to eat today. Will Americans not stop with the criticism until every country in the world adopts American-style democracy?!? For once, it might be nice for citizens to realize that we only support democracy when it's convenient to us (because we believe we can influence the new leadership). We support dictators as long as they side with us. Hypocrisy is almost inherent in US foreign policy (as with the foreign policy of almost any other country in the world). Citizens should critique and analyze the rhetoric rather than consuming it in one big gulp like the Kool-Aid others have used. Exercise your democratic rights and duties to be critical of your government and its actions, regardless of your party affiliation or the party affiliations of government leaders.

I know that this has been somewhat of a tirade. For that I apologize. For my statements, however, I do not.