andyfox
01-06-2004, 12:52 AM
Charles Krauthammer has an article in the current issue of Time called “A Farewell to Allies.” There are some thoughts in the article which clarify my fears about the attitudes of those currently in power and why those attitudes may lead to disaster.
Krauthammer (hereafter “K”) says that without the American colossus (his words), the sinews of stability would not exist. The world would collapse into chaos and “worse.” Treaties, protocols and prohibitions (on carbon emissions, land mines and nuclear testing) tie us down. We must carry on alone in our mission to right the world’s wrongs.
K says, rightly I think, that the Bush administration is contemptuous of such constraints on its power. It will take on the axis of evil one by one, alone if necessary. “With a few trusted friends, America must carry on alone.” [sic]
This mission, this feeling that we are the indispensable country (enunciated in just those words by Madelaine Albright when she was Secretary of State) can only lead to disaster. It is the same attitude that got us into so much trouble in the early Cold War. A disastrous war in Korea; a much more disastrous war in Vietnam; secret interventions in all corners of the globe that resulted in untold horrors for millions of people. In far too many instances, we lost sight of our principles, sullying the great good that we did with the stain of counterbalancing evil.
A great country doesn’t assume it knows what’s best and therefore must have a say in every corner of the globe. Note that K says we will take on the axis of evil one by one. So he expects, and I again agree with him, further preemptive wars against Iran and North Korea. There are certainly areas where the United States must be proactive; after all, we were indeed attacked. But we risk once again sullying our good deeds with our bad ones. The attitude that we are indispensable to the proper functioning of the world will inevitably lead to overextension of our resources (which K also points up) and to making mistakes born of the insistence that we know what’s best in every instance, for example, that our enemies are simply barbarians (K’s word) and have no rational basis for being our enemies. It is not an attitude that lends itself to discretion, good judgment, or wisdom in the conduct of foreign policy.
Krauthammer (hereafter “K”) says that without the American colossus (his words), the sinews of stability would not exist. The world would collapse into chaos and “worse.” Treaties, protocols and prohibitions (on carbon emissions, land mines and nuclear testing) tie us down. We must carry on alone in our mission to right the world’s wrongs.
K says, rightly I think, that the Bush administration is contemptuous of such constraints on its power. It will take on the axis of evil one by one, alone if necessary. “With a few trusted friends, America must carry on alone.” [sic]
This mission, this feeling that we are the indispensable country (enunciated in just those words by Madelaine Albright when she was Secretary of State) can only lead to disaster. It is the same attitude that got us into so much trouble in the early Cold War. A disastrous war in Korea; a much more disastrous war in Vietnam; secret interventions in all corners of the globe that resulted in untold horrors for millions of people. In far too many instances, we lost sight of our principles, sullying the great good that we did with the stain of counterbalancing evil.
A great country doesn’t assume it knows what’s best and therefore must have a say in every corner of the globe. Note that K says we will take on the axis of evil one by one. So he expects, and I again agree with him, further preemptive wars against Iran and North Korea. There are certainly areas where the United States must be proactive; after all, we were indeed attacked. But we risk once again sullying our good deeds with our bad ones. The attitude that we are indispensable to the proper functioning of the world will inevitably lead to overextension of our resources (which K also points up) and to making mistakes born of the insistence that we know what’s best in every instance, for example, that our enemies are simply barbarians (K’s word) and have no rational basis for being our enemies. It is not an attitude that lends itself to discretion, good judgment, or wisdom in the conduct of foreign policy.