In 2005 and 2006, one of the most-used political slogans in Washington involved the so-called "Pottery Barn rule," after the popular retailer. It had nothing to do with homewares, however. The rule was this: "You break it, you own it"-it was thrown as a reproach against the administration that invaded Iraq. (Little matter that spokespeople for Pottery Barn protested that this in fact was not their rule.) For the New Year, I propose another rule, which I call the Wal-Mart Rule. It comes from Wal-Mart's disastrous experiences in Germany, where they've recently gone bankrupt. The rule is this: In foreign perception of the US, the perceiver, like the customer, is king.

In 2006, Wal-Mart, that seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of low-price retailing that the left loves to hate and the right sees as the proof that capitalism works, pulled out of the world's third-largest economy, Germany. Wal-Mart, the formerly invincible, went bankrupt, belly-up, pleite (as we say in German). Many reasons were given: the loyalty to "corporate identity" demanded of workers, a concept strange to some Germans; the fact that the Wal-Mart director for Germany didn't even speak German; the fact that in our so-PC times the store forbad "flirting" among workers, a prohibition many Europeans think is merely puritanical and dumb; the fact that workers were required to smile at and greet shoppers (Germans think something is brewing if people are too friendly); and the fact that Wal-Mart's big-box stores are simply too unlike the little mom-and-pop stores, called "Aunt Emma Shops" in Germany, that have defined retailing there for generations. Some economic commentators mentioned President Bush's unloved Iraq War, and even more general anti-American sentiments in the German populace.

Whatever the reasons, the result was huge losses for Wal-Mart, and ultimately a pullout. Of course, we say. If they don't like you in retailing, you simply pack up and leave, if you have a place to leave to. You don't stay around and rail at those stupid customers for not loving you more. You, the retailer, have proposed; the customer has disposed. And that's all there is to it. If people don't want what you're selling, you can't sell it, because they won't buy it. They don't even have to give a justification for not buying it. They just don't buy it. It's capitalism, buddy. Suck it up.

I propose the "Wal-Mart rule" as a warning to Washington politicos. Thus: it doesn't do any good to rail at people who don't want to buy what you're selling. If they're not buying it, you either change your tune, or you pack up and go home. The customer is king. Even in terms of world opinion.

Just now, as every opinion poll shows, the US's public standing in the rest of the world has fallen to new lows. We can certainly debate why that is so, but it's clear that the (wo)man on the street outside the U.S. is simply not buying what the crowd in Washington is selling. And it doesn't do a bit of good for the inside-the-Beltway folks to excoriate all the foreign customers streaming out the door. They've voted with their feet: it's up to the US to do something about it if we want a presence there at all. Since "there" is anywhere else in the world but here, it would behoove us to figure out what went wrong and rectify it -- not turn the air blue about how dumb those damn furriners are to doubt us.

Still, many people will. Turn the air blue, that is. Dadgummit! We're not anti-democratic, even if we suspend habeas corpus, don't-call-it-torture interrogate, keep people in legal limbo if the president designates them "enemy combatants," and listen to phone calls-the whole lot. That's the price we pay to stave off another 9/ll; only lily-livered liberals get upset about cops playing hardball right back.

In purely rational terms, it's surely true that the current administration's infractions of civil liberties are miniscule. But the fact is, they loom large to the rest of the world. That's got to be our point of departure.

The fact is, none of these measures really seem to be getting anywhere near the people who brought us 9/11, any more than the invasion of Iraq got us al-Qaeda. Foreigners aren't dumb, even if they're not American. They noticed things like this, and pointed them out. At which point the current administration became apoplectic.

But the Wal-Mart rule tells us people don't even have to have a good reason for disliking what America does. If they do, they do, and it's up to us to do something about that. The customer is king, even if what we're selling is a view of ourselves.

America's standing in the world is currently low indeed-justly or unjustly. (For the record: I think it's unjust, but I understand why it's so.) A friend of mine, a Berliner with longtime U.S. ties, teaches English and American culture at a school in Berlin. She tells me that her efforts to make the point that the U.S. is a positive force in world affairs are now in vain. No one will listen to her. The students roll their eyes and disagree when she speaks of "American democracy," which they now hold to be an oxymoron.

Of course she, I, and my readers here know they're simply ungrateful. Her students are the new generation of a city that the U.S. kept alive through the Luftbruecke and protected for years from the U.S.S.R. with our troops. So yes, we can feel self-righteous and whine. Or we can take onboard the fact that even these people, our allies, don't like us, and address the reasons why.

In terms of perception, as in retailing, the customer is king.

Let's all hope for a better 2007.