Another thought from the State of the Union

ISOLATIONISM- n. : a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations.

This is the word President Bush used to paint those who object to his policies in Iraq and elsewhere.

However, I object to the use of the word to describe those who don't support unfounded wars against countries that haven't attacked us. I think a much better example of isolationism is a foreign policy that thumbs its nose at any foreign country which doesn't fall into lock step with America, turning the good will of the world after 9/11 into a fairly widespread disdain for this country.

Yeah, telling the world "who needs you, we'll do it alone if we have to" (to say nothing of sending John Bolton to the U.N. to try to assert U.S. control over that body), that results in an isolationism far greater than simply wanting to bring our troops home as safely as possible from a war which by all trustworthy accounts is as much of a quagmire as Viet Nam was.

Liam.