The rest of the world is really hating us right now. Why don't we care to hear that? We are not an empire.

My gut feeling is that all of this is to weaken the U.N., to possibly leave the U.N., or to destroy the U.N. in the eyes of the American public. The U.N. has been an institution that the right-wing has hated from day-one, complains constantly about on right-wing talk radio, and wants to end our participation. The more that we anger the rest of the world, the more that we encourage and promote to the American public an image of "go it alone" and not needing the U.N., the more we provide a background to stop participating in the U.N. And if we leave the U.N., as the biggest funder and organizer, then it falls apart. Thereby, allowing us as the world's biggest superpower to do whatever we want around the globe. That's scary.