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Show The Salt Lake Tribune OPINION Sunday, November 10, 2002 U.S. Should Follow Its Own Example of Restraint in Foreign Intervention BY JOYCE APPLEBY mankind“notbyits crusadeto establish the em- HISTORY NEWS SERVICE pire of our principles,not by establishing a corps of diplomatic apostles ofliberty, but by the moral influence of its example.” The country followed this advice through the 19th century. The entanglement of the United States in Middle Eastpolitics gets tighter and tighter with every turn of events. Although the destruction of the World Trade Center burst upon usasa totally unsuspected development, the Septemberattack in fact cameafter 50 years of American involvementin the affairs of Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan andIraq,not to mentionIsrael. As President Bush poises our armed forces to take action againstIraq should thatnationfail to comply with U.N. arms inspectors, one arresting question remains unanswered: Should the United States be aggressively policing the world like this or do the needs at home deserve our leaders’ full attention? The query itself has an interesting history. It is an ironic twist from the pastthatthefirst congressional discussion of Muslim culture on the sameforeign policy issue that is embroiling the country right now. In a debate abouthelping the Greeks in their revolt against We could act on this wisdom today, but it would require shaking free of the precedents established in the past 100 years when the United States became the powerful Western hub for Eu- ropean interests. It became that hub only after a century of isolation from the rest of the world, isolation ended by the two World Wars. By 1945, the United States was the largest and most prosperous country in the Free World. GreatBritain, France, Italy and Germany had exhausted them- selves in the two devastating wars. principal championoffreedom in a global strug- gle with the Soviet Union and its Communistallies. Now, 13 years afterthe fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolically brought an end to the Cold War, we have a chance to consider the wisdom of asked if the United States should pursue its val- cultivating our principles at home instead of “over there-ism” and “over here-ism.” The Greekeffort to throw off the yoke of the Ottoman Empire at first seemed doomed to failure. But the longer the Greeks held out, the more their independence movementtook on the aura of humanity’s indomitable fight for freedom. By 1824, U.S. citizens had become involved. The American “Hellenes” began to hold public meet- “over there.” Americans have rightly felt vul- from further warfare would notonly soothe our allies and opponents, it would also focus Americans’ attention on the concrete measures they A week of shopping for charity could take to makeus safer at home. Greeks. Butcautioncarried the dayin 1824; the House America’sfirst principle. With the attention and revenue spared defeated the resolution promising moral sup- through a disentanglement from the Middle port. Those whoresisted the temptation to aid the Greeks persuaded their colleagues that the East, the United States could becomethat exemplar of freedom, justice, restraint and tolerance greatest contribution Americans could make to democratic self-government was by cultivating democracy at home. Virginia’s John Randolph summed uptheissue in words that are relevant today when he thatthe world’s peoples yearn to see. insisted the United States could best help NOVEMBER 18-24, 2002 nerable since September2001, but the intensified servative foreign policy goals as the Bush administration’s radical bellicosity. Pulling back plesU.S. support for the heroic struggle of the rebels and petition their representatives to THE GATEWAY TO GIVINGWEEK fear of terrorism could just as easily serve con- The sober message of conservatives in 1824 was that the country’s “first and most important duty” was to maintain peace. It’s again within the realm of possibilities that we adopt that as ings, send clothes and medicine to the Greek UP TO 20% DISCOUNT AT OVER 40 STORES! The ensuing Cold War intensified our sense of acting on a world stage when we became the the Ottoman Turks in 1821, members of Congress ues by promoting them abroad orby cultivating them at home — what we might shorthand to OF SALT LAKE Joyce Appleby is professor emerita ofhistory at UCLA and a former president of the American Historical Association; e-mail: appleby@history -ucla.edu and enjoy lavish savings at very special stores and restaurants. _ PURCHASECARD FOR $20 AT ANY - WELLS FARGO LOCATION and you'll also be helping thousands of: -.Ourneighbors in need get back on their “100% ofthe proceeds from The Gateway & November is American Diabetes Month DIABETIC FOOT SCREENING For diabetics, knowing whethertheir feet have adequate feeling could savetheir legs and eventheir lives. 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