OJ and America's Popularity Overseas- A Parallel

A friend of mine moved to southeast asia a while ago. Recently, he sent me an email commenting on how much the U.S. (and especially George W. Bush) is disliked overseas. He says that strangers approach him and blast Bush. I'm sure he finds it kind of ironic to take heat for Bush, since he never liked him and would never vote for him. He asked me how I feel about the matter. I suspect that he's looking for confirmation that I, too, am disheartened by what Bush has done to our image overseas.

Actually, it got me to thinking about OJ. I've concluded beyond any reasonable doubt that OJ killed Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. The jury verdict was a travesty. Yet, after the verdict was announced, there was open rejoicing amongst a significant number of people, largely in the African-American community. Despite the overwhelming evidence in the case, many people wanted OJ to walk. They chose to ignore the issue of justice and the evidence, and instead focused on "their" side winning the case. They chose to be ignorant of the facts, and let their prejudices rule the day.

Does the fact that a significant number of people believed OJ to be innocent mean that he is innocent? Do the prosecutors owe OJ an apology for charging him and bringing him to trial? Obviously not. Yet, using the same rationale (lots of people sided with him so they must be right) many Bush critics claim that Bush must be wrong, or Bush is an idiot, or worse. They claim that Europeans or Asians or other nations' peoples hate us, so we must be evil or in the wrong. But, as in the case of OJ supporters, having a large group of people ardently support a position does not prove that the position is correct.

My friend probably did not question the people who lambasted the US. He probably did not ask what their news sources are; what their attitude towards the US has been in the past; whom they think caused the Towers to fall on 9/11 (many overseas claim it was a jewish plot); whether radical Islamism presents a much more potent danger to the world than capitalism, etc. The US should not be overly concerned with being "popular" overseas. One of the biggest mistakes Gil Garcetti (the District Attorney whose office prosecuted OJ) made was moving the case to downtown LA. He apparently did this to satisfy the cries of those who demanded political correctness. The result was a disaster.

Our leaders should base their decisions on what they believe to be right, based on the best information available to them. If they base their major foreign policy decisions on a desire to be popular, then we are headed for disaster. When the OJ verdict came in, many people were dancing in the streets. If we place popularity above pragmatism, those who hate us may be dancing on our graves.