Who Wants To Rule The World? Or At Least Organize It?

I was chatting recently with an online acquaintance from Greece.

She can't understand why the US cares about Iraq or Iran...or anywhere else, for that matter. My pointing to the religious war going on, whose earlier shots were fired in lower Manhattan, made no impact on her whatsoever.

Then I realized something- most countries are doing well to just survive. They are smallish, without significant power, and literally cannot imagine trying to influence global conditions.

So they suspect the US when it does. When I suggested we just want peace, in order to have the maximum economic trade and prosperity worldwide, she did not believe me. This stunned me.

It seems that, like during the Pax Romana, while, on one hand, the smaller societies enjoy economic benefits, they simply distrust the country strong enough to provide the 'peace.'

Perhaps my Greek acquaintance is projecting, seeing as how all the other, prior global dominators were from Europe, and have had acquisitive histories. Whereas the US tends to just want to trade and open up markets. Consider the post-WWII environment, when the US spent millions to resuscitate Europe, Greece, et. al., in order to keep Communism at bay, and rebuild markets and societies.

When the rest of the world has this attitude, nothing we do or say will ever satisfy them, other than becoming totally isolationist. I think this includes any of the liberal Democrats who like to blame other countries' attitudes toward the US on conservatives, and our current President. Short of totally throwing ourselves on the UN for guidance, I doubt that the other larger countries will ever be satisfied with US behavior for very long. They love us when we protect their citizens and energy sources, then they forget all about that and rail at our strength and leadership

We simply can't afford to do let the fears of others, or their own isolationism, govern our need to enforce a global peace that promotes worldwide trade, prosperity, and freedom.