The central flaw in Western liberal foreign policy is the naïve belief they can construct a civilization without enemies. No amount of multicultural babble, foreign-aid payoffs, or servile bows before foreign leaders can accomplish that task.Look, this is true even on a micro, personal level. It's foolishness to think that everyone will always like you. You, just by being you, can gain enemies. Personally, I don't try to make enemies, but I do have some anyway -- people who hate me because I'm me. (I could tell you stories from Nerdmoots that you wouldn't believe for sheer rudeness and uncivilized behavior. Oddly enough -- or perhaps not so oddly -- the people who hate me most are other women. But I digress.) Those people you take preventive measures against. On a good day you might try to make a friendly overture, but under no circumstances do you ever let them think that you're weak. In fact, I usually recommend my 3-part approach to social interaction:
1. Best of all worlds: You play fair with me, and I'll play fair with you. Let's be friends.
2. Second best: You leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone. Let's agree to disagree and ignore each other.
3. Last option: You screw with me, and I'll smack you down so fast you won't know what hit you.
Option #3 comes with an addendum that you better not screw with my friends from Option #1 either.
Anyhoo, the entire op-ed piece I linked above is worth reading if you have a minute.
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