Isolationism is not an option
Sir: In ‘America: you’ll miss it when it’s gone’ (3 March) Irwin Stelzer gives a fair imitation of a rejected child picking up his toys and leaving the nursery. The truth, as a wise commentator like Mr Stelzer must know, is that isolationism is not an option for the world’s sole superpower. Fortress America was not a practical proposition in 1940 when isolationism was at its height, and it is still less so in the era of globalisation and international terror.
Whichever president is elected next time will have to defend and protect American interests across the world, and will need to win friends and allies in order to do so. Let us hope that he or she will make a better fist of it than George W. Bush. Being hated, as Britain discovered at the time of the Boer war, goes with the territory of being top dog.
I fear that Mr Stelzer will have to get used to hearing ignorant, irritating and inaccurate anti-American remarks at those disobliging dinner parties he insists on attending for a good while yet.
Nigel Jones Lewes, East Sussex
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