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Re "One thing we need to do" [sept. 11]: Time's managing editor, Richard Stengel, was right — Americans should give more thought to foreign policy. Furthermore, it is not good enough for the U.S., the self-appointed world's policeman, to reflect on what constitutes its own values and interests. The policeman should either reflect on the values and interests of the policed world — not necessarily the same as his — or stop being the policeman nobody has asked him to be. The polar opposites of isolationism and interventionism are not the only options. There is also the option of participating in world politics on an equal footing with other nations. Meanwhile, anti-Americanism is unfortunately growing where the U.S. would not expect it.
Rainer Lau
Brussels
Compliments to Stengel for his editorial. Unlike the other articles in Time on the aftermath of 9/11, his was the only one that raised some fundamental questions. When violence is countered by violence, regression is fighting regression. It is a double step backward. The question is not what we are willing to kill for but, as Gandhi said, what we are willing to die for. Nineteen young men answered that question in a terrible manner on 9/11. The passengers of Flight 93 answered it in a diametrically opposed, compassionate and extraordinarily caring manner. Both answers need to be analyzed and discussed and the results taught to every one of our youngsters. That is the only way we will eventually create a better world.
Michel Mortier
Zug, Switzerland
U.S. foreign policy needs a greater dose of realism. It should be more in tune with the world community rather than taking an armchair view and telling other nations to conform to the U.S. perspective.
Nirmal Kuamar Mishra
Patna, India
Words Unspoken
In "What Bush should have said" [Sept. 11], columnist Joe Klein suggested that the U.S. order the Iraqi Prime Minister to disband his coalition because of the influence of Muqtada al-Sadr. But if we are sacrificing American lives in the effort to establish democracy in the Middle East (whether Iraqis want it or not), we should at least allow the citizens of Iraq to enjoy the democratic right to select their own representatives. We should not dictate that the government be favorably disposed to us, as that would violate the basic tenets of the democracy we are ostensibly seeking to export to the Middle East.
Bill Gottdenker
Mountainside, New Jersey, U.S.