The Fearful Superpower
It's not just Bush's fault. America is scared of the new world, and that's no way to run a hyperpower.
For the past few years, America has been alienated from the world. We have all read the yearly polls with the same damning numbers. But on one issue, the United States and the world agree: majorities everywhere expect things to improve markedly after George W. Bush. Whether it's in Europe or Asia, the refrain from politicians, businessmen and intellectuals is the same. "We don't hate America," one of them told me recently. "We hate Bush. When he's gone, it will be a new day."
But will it? The question will be put to the test in a year, when a new president enters the White House.
There's little doubt that the style and substance of U.S. foreign policy over the past seven years has provoked enormous international opposition. What is less clear is that the style and substance were unique products of the Bush administration. Some part of the global response was surely the product of longstanding unease with U.S. dominance. After all, France's foreign minister coined the term "hyperpuissance" to describe America under Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush.
Then came 9/11. Ever since the attacks, the United States has felt threatened and under siege and determined to carve out maximum room to maneuver. But where Americans have seen defensive behavior, the rest of the world has looked on and seen the most powerful nation in human history acting like a caged animal, lashing out at any and every constraint on its actions.
At the heart of this behavior is fear. Americans have become scared of the new world that is emerging around them. As long as this atmosphere of fear envelops U.S. politics, it will surely produce very similar results abroad. Washington's real task, therefore, is to combat such unthinking emotion.
Yet the opposite is happening. Republicans are falling over each other to paint an atmosphere of dire threat that requires strong, even brutish action to protect the American people. Democrats, while far less guilty of fearmongering, have been afraid to combat this hysteria.
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Member Comments
Posted By: brianna17 @ 10/08/2008 1:19:21 PM
Comment: I completely agree with Melbee. There are kids in my high school who were more than just "left behind" they were abandoned....under the safe haven law. Ha
Posted By: joe85 @ 10/05/2008 11:10:07 AM
Comment: Always remember there are two faces to the same coin.Yes for 7 years george bush and the republican machine ruled by instilling fear and crashing any rational and objective opposition.This has largely been done by radical talk show hosts be it at Foxnews or the thousands of right-wing talk radio hosts like rush limbaugh, Bill Oreilly and the Sunday social conservative hate-mongers!!!.That was the face of Bush America:fear and hate of terrorist-sponsoring states and their idealogy.The idealogy that "God has given permission to some desert prophet or lunatic to kill all those who do not believe in Mohamed or Allah and be rewarded in heaven with virgins is as nonsensical as is petty.Its an abnomination against the very idea that our GOD is all-loving, all forgiving and all merciful!!!.that's the philosophical interpretation.
On the other hand,the premise of fear is patently false. On the second and final level of analysis, Islamic terrorism: with its suicide bombers and car bombs, be it from shia Iran or wahabi saudi arabia are but inferior threat to the might of Pax Americana. THESE UNWASHED DESERT TERRORISTS HAVE AS MUCH CHANCE OF SCARING AMERICA AS THEY HAVE OF SCARING THEIR LORDS, THE SAUDI ROYAL FAMILY.sO BEFORE THEY CAN CHALLENGE THE MIGHTIEST, WHY NOT OVERCOME THEIR ENSLAVERS???.
Posted By: cani77 @ 10/03/2008 9:13:53 PM
Comment: The Bush Depression
In a few weeks we will make a choice that will decide our future.
I follow an economist named Bob Proctor. He has called the top and bottom of every market crash since the 70s correctly.
Also, he perfectly predicted the current real estate market meltdown and the picture he paints about what will happen in the next couple years
is terrifying.He thinks it will be worse then the great depression.
The banks in the U.S. are going under one after the other. Countrywide the largest morgage bank in the world,Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch which are 3 out of the top 5 wall street firms. Also, Fanny and Freddy Mae which hold 50 percent of the home loans in the United States.
The government took them over because they are essentially bankrupt.If they didn't the entire financially system would virtually shut down, the stock market would crash and we would suffer beyond what any of us have seen before.
McCain just like Bush " doesn't understand the economy".
That not just my opinion its his own words. Not only does he not understand how to fix it but he does not understand exactly what is broken.
It is no surprise that he doesn't. The people that make up these securities use complex mathematical models very few people understand.
Bush and McCain both can take the credit for this mess since they helped deregulate the laws that were protecting us.
Bush's economic advisor Phil Graham wrote the deregulation bill that allowed banks to take huge risks with all of our future.
Now, Phil Graham is the head of McCain's economic policy.He is also McCain's choice for the next secretary of the treasury.
No one in this country can afford for that to happen. The last time Bush met with his economic advisors was in March. He either didn't care or didn't realize that anything was wrong. Phil Graham had the guts to say that we are in a mental recession after he helped create the worst economy meltdown in our lifetime.
It will take the best and brightest minds in the world to get us out of this nightmare. As bad as Bush has done, McCain would be
even more destructive because things are in much worse shape. The next president will not inherit a surplus like Bush did but a tanking economy and a 11,600,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars deficit.Bush created a national debt larger then the first 42 presidents combined
If you do what you have always done then you will get what you have always got.
When it comes to policy Bush and McCain are the same 90 percent of the time.
So why isnt obama 25 points ahead
The chairman of McCains campaign recently said that people don't vote on issues they vote on a personality composite. Which means he is trying to sell you personality instead of results.
Let's teach him we are smarter than that .
31 states are voting now, dont wait
Elect Obama Biden 2008
Check out this video of sarah palins interview before you vote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r36Xc0GG4i