The trouble with buying friends

When I was in the second grade, I took a small belonging of mine to school every day to give to the class bully, Karen. My goal was to make her my friend or at least keep her from picking on me.

I quickly learned two lessons -- you can't buy real friends and paying off extortionists doesn't work in the long run.

The same dynamics hold true in international political affairs. The United States spends billions of dollars to buy support, if not friendship, and to influence relationships between and among other nations, political factions and interest groups.

Pakistan is the newest example of how wrong that strategy often goes. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has been a questionable friend at best, murky in his dealings with Islamic terrorists and brazen in his willingness to suspend the constitution, round up judges and silence media. For this, we've passed on $10 billion in peace offerings.

International relations are complex and often slimy. The U.S. isn't the only nation to do distasteful things to gain influence in a region. But when they don't work -- as they often don't -- we end up being, not only more despised than ever, but shackled to a corrupt leader who becomes a symbol of the greed and immorality of the U.S.

We need wiser long-term strategies -- and to ask ourselves if we're not being both foolish and arrogant to think we can micromanage other nations' affairs.