I come away from my first panel participation struck by a duality I often experience at international forums. I am very critical of much of American policy under President Bush, both foreign and domestic. In answer to the first questions posed, I voiced these criticisms. I was pleased to have the chance to point out the enormous disparity between the President’s inaugural rhetoric and the policy over which he presides. I can think of no country – literally – that has made promotion of democracy or freedom the main part of policy, or even an important one.

Even in Afghanistan, we invaded – with my support – only after they refused to give up Osama. But as I listen to criticisms of the U.S. from some others, the degree to which I support American policy in the broadest sense, and the values I believe we embody, becomes clear to me intellectually and emotionally.

For example, when a Chinese representative essentially dismissed the notion that there are fundamental democratic precepts by which China’s governance can be measured, and talked of an alternative form of democracy – apparently unlike any the world has ever known – I had to voice my complete skepticism and support for the western-type of democracy she denigrated.

Even more strikingly, when a British speaker expressed the idea that China and Iran were admirable countries as sources of regional stability, I had to ask her what countries she considered bad ones. When she responded with a list of negatively-rated nations consisting of Syria, Iraq and Israel, I was jolted by the gap that existed between me and someone whom I first saw as something of an ideological ally.

I am again struck at an international forum (as a man of the left politically) at the gap between me and other American liberals on the one hand and some none-Americans on the other. And I fear that they let disagreements with specific American policies – which I often share – become a platform for anti-American positions and positions of American allies, even when the left should be more supportive of these. While I disagree with some Israel policies as a man of the left, by every value that leads me to be in politics, Israel is by far the most admirable country in its region.

– U.S. Congressman Barney Frank