There is no policy of ‘freedom and diversity’

Re “Radical Islam -- globalization for losers,” Opinion, April 27

Jonah Goldberg writes that “in the war on terrorism, America is on the side of freedom and diversity.”

Nonsense. Open markets and cheap labor have been the goals of American foreign policy for decades, and local cultures and economies have been thoroughly and repeatedly trampled by corporate invasions.

American leadership has simply ignored human rights concerns until they coincided with the geopolitical aims of the Bush administration.

The United States, like Al Qaeda, is attempting to impose a monolithic hegemony on the rest of the world. The only difference is that the U.S. hegemony is capitalist instead of socialist and much better armed.

The United States is surely the lesser of two evils, but indigenous cultures have little chance of survival when confronted with either version of imperialism, and such survival has never been a goal or concern of American policy-makers.

DANIEL BREZENOFF

Long Beach

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Goldberg offers a very thoughtful column until his concluding ideological rant: “In the war on terrorism, America is on the side of freedom and diversity.” The statement captures the basic goodwill of the American people but tragically ignores the primary motives of President Bush.

JIM LAMB

Claremont