Recently, a well-written letter appeared on your Sunday opinion page in which the writer decried American foreign policy, culminating in that of President Bush, in the Middle East. The writer listed a series of self-serving incursions the U.S. has made into Persian and Arab politics. He cited offenses such as placing the shah of Iran in power when a democracy was in Iran before the U.S. decided to put a man in power who might best serve U.S. interests. He also spoke of our support for Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war.

I spoke to a long-time friend, a person from Yemen, who echoed this writer's concern about the direction Republicans, in part, have taken in supporting the idea of staying in the Middle East. Of particular offense is the idea that America knows what is best for the area and that America always stands for democracy. In the U.S., there is the ugly fact that Arabs are being seen as "dangerous" by the common Joe.

American history is rife with mercantilism, a principle where we establish trade, industry and power relations that give us a favorable edge. While Mother England was not alone in this practice, it served as our model for expansion in all areas of economy, political power and even our morality. People who got in our way seem to have been dealt with rather harshly over time.

That other nations have more repressive regimes and that people around the world suffer greater bigotry than we experience in America is no doubt true. But we are human beings too. We have national interests that we will support, whether secretly or overtly, and always with justification or spin. Perhaps among the toughest things to swallow is the fact that we are not really any different than any other people who aggressively pursue their own interests. Yet here we are.

Jim Davison,

Milton