Learning to deal with criticism from abroad

Re “Pitching America, despite the boos,” Opinion, Oct. 5

Far from assuaging the fears, anxieties and disgust of foreign people, Max Boot, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes and their ilk only feed the flames of displeasure with their arrogant pronouncements about foreign “ignorance” and “moonbats.”

What Boot and his fellow right-wingers will never grasp with their condescending dismissal of foreign criticism is that it’s the tone, not the content, of American policy that so enrages the rest of the world. Sure, conspiracy theories about 9/11 are ridiculous, but when one is treated with the patronizing contempt that drips from the mouths of people such as Boot, most people would prefer to believe the ridiculous rather than be humiliated into agreement with those like him.

Boot’s talks to foreigners sound like weary lectures to misbehaving 7-year-olds. Try treating them as fellow adult human beings, Mr. Boot (and Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney), not as ignorant peasants, and you might get somewhere.

PAUL MCCUDDEN

Los Angeles

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Boot minimizes the serious and legitimate disagreements that many people abroad have with U.S. foreign policy by conveniently choosing to address only the “moonbat queries” he hears.

The rash, unilateral, hypocritical and ineffective policies of the Bush administration regarding Iraq, Israel, the environment and the United Nations have made the world less safe.

This is not just the opinion of people in the Middle East but throughout the world -- including some of our closest allies.

Let’s hope that Karen Hughes listens better than Boot does.

KEN GALAL

San Francisco