As an example, he points out is that Afghanis were much more incensed by Koran burning than by the murder of 16 Afghan civilians by, apparently, a U.S. soldier gone berserk. Their reactions made perfect sense to them, no sense to us. We'd have reacted exactly oppositely.
On the other hand, Afghanis routinely sexually molest male children and murder women to protect family honor. They think these behaviors normal; we are appalled.
Hadar's conclusion is that the U.S. should not try to "sell" our values into other nations. Our best sales pitch, he believes, is to do a really good job of running our own country so that others will decide they should try what is so obviously working for us, that is, for the U.S.
Do you hear in this argument echos of Ron Paul's foreign policy? I believe I do.
I will admit I am finished with nation building - enough already. If we need to punish foreign trouble-makers for causing us grief, do it kinetically and leave a smoking abattoir behind as an object lesson. They can build their nation without our help.
