Stopping the Scold War

Retired diplomat John R. Hamilton writes in The Washington Post about how American state department report cards irritate the rest of the world.

That is part of the reason. The other is that we have a President who thinks he is the leader of the free world. Not just this one. All of them. the sad fact of the matter is, as I wrote in my Iraq essay, that assumption is true if you look at our military treaties which put an American commander (and therefore the commander-in-chief) in charge of all joint operations.

The other part is the report cards, which he describes but does not explain. To explain them you have to reveal who mandates these. The State Department does not do these to get their kicks. Congress makes them. These little requirements get slipped into authorization or appropriations bills as a way to get enough votes to pass. Anyone with an ax to grind can put it in. Of course, these report cards hardly lead to action. Short of war or sanctions (which hurt us more than them), there is no action you can really take against another state. Now, if these reports led to us not supporting dictatorships, like the Saudis for instance, they might have a purpose. However, they are merely a publicity stunt.

If we are truly serious about our principles and want to spread them, we would join with like minded nations in some form of allied government (see the attached essay) which would have the authority to enforce these principles, both here and in other member regions. In fact, aside from control of an allied military and common currency (in which there would be a common economy) that would be its main function, policing the lower levels of regional, state/provincial and local government against acts of tyranny.