FYI, I think the weakness in our strategic position is chiefly economic, depletion of wealth and imbalance of accounts (staggering flow of capital out of the country over the past 20 years), and very specifically, our energy infrastructure.
I think economic aspects were ALWAYS part of Bin Laden’s game plan, if not the central strategy. Bankrupt us. Is is fair to say the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan was in part due to the staggering costs of the war?
Seems like we tend to credit America as being a bit more responsible for winning the Cold War than we actually were. Glasnost and Perestroika were as much about the failure of Soviet systems internally as they were about us. Sure we helped. We held the line and applied tremendous pressure. But the Soviets were primarily responsible for their own demise.
Could similar breakdowns occur to American institutions and systems of governance, politics, economy, society? It’s quite possible that we’re witnessing some of this occurring before our very eyes. Pax Cathay. What a scary thought.
Overall, I’m optimistic. I think we can turn things around (get past Iraq and the mortgage crisis, for example). But I think we have to start addressing our collective future in earnest, in a non-partisan way, and it starts with re-inventing and re-tooling our energy infrastructure. That’s the challenge of our time.
In the interim, I think we have to be ‘realistic’ about national security and what we can achieve with our foreign policy. That would be “American Realism” to me — simply being pragmatic about what we can achieve. We have finite (but effective) resources.
War has a time and place. Iraq is not at the top of the list. In my view, Obama, though not a ‘policy wonk’, has correctly prioritized and identified a sound overall direction. I think his comprehension, values and vision are correct. Remains to be seen if he governs effectively.
