A Path to Destruction


I heard the following (paraphrased) on a political commentary news story on NPR:

The War on Terror is a misnomer. Terror is a tactic, and you can't have a war on a tactic.

This argument may be mostly semantics, but it raises a good point. Why are we not declaring war on an actual organization? The obvious answer is because we have multiple enemies using terror against us. We have aroused the anger of multiple groups of people. Unfortunately, we are a people who hates to stand by and do nothing when we are attacked, literally or otherwise. Unfortunately for us, we also have a leader who knows but only one counter tactic. And this brings me to the main point I want to make:

George Bush's foreign policies have us on a dangerous path. More and more he is using hard power to further our interests, rather than soft power for influence and respect using cooperation and collaboration. The hard power route instead engenders disrespect at least, and anger at worst. When you are the sole superpower, you cannot flex your power while standing alone. The American success is nothing without the respect and trust in the good faith and credit of the American financial system (our bond debt) and our ideals (foreign policy). Jeopardize our respect in the world, and we jeopardize the very foundation of our success.

We have successfully blazed a path for over 200 years that had much of the world following in our footsteps. But in the last few years that has changed. We are more alone on our path now than at any time in modern history, and more than most Americans realize. Continue down this path for a couple more decades, and it will be the undoing of the American Empire.

Posted: Sun - September 19, 2004 at 10:52 PM        

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