The US: no-one follows any more

11 November 2007

Timothy Garton Ash appears to have nodded off towards the end of his otherwise intelligible Nov 9 piece on a new, new world order:

"Somewhere underneath the Princeton paper there is a sense that the United States should lay out a strategy for what used to be called the free world, as it did in the early years of the cold war. Where it leads, others will follow."

I'm astonished that this sort of thinking still exists. No-one seems to have told certain commentators (Mr Garton Ash is not the only one) that when the US leads, these days, the majority of the planet can be relied upon to bolt in the other direction.

Has Mr Garton Ash not read the polls of recent years? Significant majorities in numerous nations round the globe regard the United States as more dangerous than North Korea and Iran.

John Macgregor

Chiang Mai

Thailand