Do we support Nation Building?

This is going to be a campaign issue. Bush* ran in 2000 as someone who opposed Nation Building then made his whole presidency about Nation Building. Is this something we want to attack? I don't mean the Huge Flip Flop I mean the idea itself. Is America a country that will aid and support other countries in their desire to better themselves with Agricultural and Industrial assistance?

we rebuild ours first?

But i'm not sure that's the right answer. Certainly it is frusterating to consider sending money to, say, Sierra Leone (to pick a nation at random) instead of spending it on our own poor and suffering. A better theory, in my mind, is to spend money on making teh world a better and safer place AND spend it on making life better and easier for our own citizens.

I mean the budget deficit is, in part, artificial--we have it because of President Bush's taxcuts to the rich. With a sensible revenue strategy, I believe that we could afford to do both; to both help the world and help our own.

Bryant
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Is America a country that will aid and support other countries in their desire to better themselves with Agricultural and Industrial assistance?

I hope so. Is "supporting other countries to better themselves" what everybody means by "nation building?" Or does nation building entail an invasion and occupation? Do we need an invitation to nation build or do we decide which nation gets built?

I hear the term "nation building" used, but I'm not sure what it means and I'm not sure what methods are to be used. I don't like problem-solving using vague umbrella terms. I'd prefer each situation to looked at individually and that goals be specific and free of generalizations.

Perhaps nation building isn't something about which one can form an opinion. Some of our nation building has done some good; at other times our nation building has just been an excuse for rotten, self-interest.