DIPLOMACY

Critiques of American foreign policy, particularly by the more progressive and academic commentators, appear to suggest several premises:

1.) That the nations of the world will only pursue their interests if another nation makes them angry, or provokes them in some way;

2.) That nations will will not pursue their interests in exchange for "understanding;"

3.) That only the United States and its allies have extra-territorial interests;

4.) That wars result not from intractable conflicts between the interests and ambitions of nations, but because of misunderstandings;

5.) That only the United States and its allies select as leaders persons that cannot be reasoned with;

6.) That diplomatic failures that result in massacres are preferable to military successes that do not;

7.) That all conflicts on the planet result, somehow, from the United States's use of natural resources.