by Samual Seward

Created on: February 23, 2009   Last Updated: March 02, 2009

American foreign policy has become even more pertinent in today's society since September 11. Dinesh D'Souza in "America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For" and Mark Hertsgaard the author of "The Oblivious Empire" both offer opinions and examples of American foreign policy dealing with moral justification of spreading freedom. Has the moral crusade for creating freedom and spreading Liberalism throughout the world caused the United States more problems and has this jaded the citizens of America?

D'Souza makes the claim that as American's, we have the inalienable right to spread democracy as a moral standard throughout the Middle East in order to ensure their liberty abroad. The term D'Souza uses for this is American Universalism. Universalism is the idea that American should not be thought as an exception but the ideals we posses in freedom should be ubiquitous throughout the world. D'Souza claims that we have the moral right and justification to spread our ideals throughout the world not just as a choice but also as a responsibility. D'Souza claims this is a moral responsibility of all Americans. Bringing morality into the picture, D'Souza addresses the "inner voice" of the American people in order to garner support for the greater cause.

D'Souza's view of American foreign policy relies solely on the idea of moral self-confidence. D'Souza claims that if Americans believe in our cause then we will eventually overcome, giving the failure of Vietnam as an example. D'Souza does not take in account any significant statistical information but references the intangible and makes claims that cannot be proven only believed. How can one believe the only way to win the war on terrorism is moral self-confidence? I do not believe this is the answer.

D'Souza believes that interfering with their society is our moral right. But is asserting ourselves into their affairs really going to change their society for the better or will it just cause more problems in the future? Hertsgaard has the answer to D'Souza's belief in asserting ourselves in the Muslim world. "The United States has hardly shunned overseas involvement over the years; we simply insist on setting our own terms," (Hertsgaard, 785) states Herstgaard in his description of the current state of foreign policy of the United States.

Hertsgaard does not agree that the American government should interfere with the workings of countries abroad. He gives specific examples of the hypocrisy of the United States government

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