10/08/01 01:20 PM: Georgetown: Global Issue

Here is my Georgetown admissions essay, in response to: “Briefly discuss a current global issue, indicating why you consider it important and what you suggest should be done to deal with it.”

“The highest possible form of treason is to say that Americans aren’t loved wherever they go, whatever they do. . . . American foreign policy should recognize hate rather than imagine love.” These words are spoken by Horlick Minton, ambassador to the Republic of San Lorenzo, in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Written nearly four decades ago, these words have taken on a special significance since the events of September 11. Americans are not hated throughout the world, but many did not realize until recently that we are not necessarily revered, either. It is now abundantly clear to everyone that there are people who have an extreme distaste for the United States and its citizens. It is not at all clear, however, that the causes of this antipathy are well understood.

It is crucial that Americans understand the roots of such feelings in order for us to deal with the issue properly. It is no solution to throw our hands up in the air and say, “They are irrational. They hate us for no reason.” Such thinking provides for nothing more than the continuation of hostilities under the rationale of, “He hates me; therefore, I will hate him.”

People like easy answers, but simple explanations are rarely complete. They may, in fact, lead away from problem itself. Extremist Arab Muslims were involved in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When the American people asked “Why?” they were told, in many cases, that those people hated Americans because we do not practice Islam, or some such simplistic answer.

We’re not quite sure what their problem with the U.S. was, but plenty of people and nations have legitimate reasons to dislike this country because of its policies (though none of those policies are a justification for physically attacking civilians). In 1998, the United States destroyed a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan (which made half the nation’s medicine) when it was falsely identified as a chemical weapons factory. The U.S. supports Israel’s responses of gunfire by soldiers against Palestinian children throwing stones. The U.S. habitually supports international laws and treaties–then disregards them when they are no longer beneficial to its own interests. Take, for example, it’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 land mine ban treaty, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, just to name a few.

The United States is the most influential nation in the world, and it should not take this position for granted. It would do well to shift its role from that of the autocrat creating rules for others to follow to that of an equal member in the process of drafting a set of principles for all to abide by. It must be more evenhanded and careful in its foreign policy in order to create friends rather than enemies. Lastly, when it signs onto an agreement, it must keep its word and follow the agreement not just until the immediate benefits run out. Nobody likes a liar.

Kevin Peliusczak  Personal