Posted on 09/15/2007 1:35:48 AM PDT by vertolet
You know what a "Global Thought leaders are? A bunch of losers like Joe Biden, Thomas Freedman and other has been refugees from the 1960s sitting around at cocktail parties gasing on and on with their college dorm room theories about how the world should work.
This is pure wishful thinking chicken little Leftist BS. Nations do not have friends. Nations have interests. Right now the US forcible defending those interest's. Right now, for the 1st time in a long time, the US is seen as a reliable cedible partner with regional and local interests OTHER then the corrupt ruling oligarchy of Mullahs and Kings. The US has a solid working relationship with NATO on Afghanistan. Has a coalition of 36 nations on the ground fixing the former bleeding ulcer that use to be Saddam's Iraq. Established solid working relationships with Pakistan, with India, has contained North Korea have their disaster Clinton engagement policy, has kicked Al Qeda 3/4s of the way to hell, has broken the strategic position of Iran-Syria by taking the intervening ground in Iraq, broken the Syrian hold on Lebanon, dismantled Libya's WMD programs, The US has established itself in the central position of the Middle East opening up a ground position that it can use as an avenue of attack into Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia at need. Destroyed radical Islamic cells from the Philippines to Somalia etc etc etc etc etc
IF this was Hillary Clinton in the White House these same butt clowns would be screaming about the formidable awesomeness of Hillary's Foreign policy "genius". BUT because it is a guy from Texas in the WH, who both the senile old DC Dinocons, and the Hysteric Left politically corrupted Media, hate for proving their Cold War era "Realists" dogmas nonsense we get this sort of absurd blater published instead.
Yes, I laid awake last night worrying that a Chavez campesino would ride up to my house on a donkey and throw a tostido (or toestada, toaster, whatever they call it) at my door.
Total wishful thinking by a leftist journalist.
WHEN the next energy discovery is made, or several of them, (not if), the whole game will change. The only two reasons we aren’t in total control of everything at this point are 1> the treason committed by the Clinton’s during which some of our greatest secrets were given to enemies and 2> the fact that we aren’t so consumed with imperialistic greed that we control the world’s most productive oil fields.
Like I said- WHEN the next energy breakthrough happens, we will not need their oil, but they will need our technology.
We just have to keep the traitors out of power.
It never could work.
The barbarians are already at the gates.
We do not really understand that the West itself is at risk, and instead of building walls we are busy, busy, busy out among the barbarian tribes, doing social work.
Total leftist crap...as the Barbarians eat away at the Socialist West, where do the EUers, etc plan to escape, Russia, China, India?
They will come hat in hand soon enough, the question will be what should we, the USA, do at that time.
Right you are.
It does little good for the US Navy to keep the trade routes open if doing so only looses the barbarians among us because, while the path itself is guarded, it is not policed.
Worse, if you are going to confuse social work with war, you better not reveal to the barbarians that you have no clothes. Not a good idea to take a liberal social worker to an Arab terror fight.
Someone post the pic of the “headache dude”. “Not this **** again”!
LLS
If FEAR does not work, why is it that Europe can’t kiss pootie’s butt long or fast enough? It ain’t because they love him!
LLS
Standard liberal talking point, with no provable basis.
o A view across the globe resulting from Abu Ghraib and range of missteps that the US has lost the moral high ground it had enjoyed for decades
Standard liberal talking point, with no provable basis, as above.
o A feeling among global leaders that the US is without a coherent foreign policy strategy...a belief that has started feeding on itself and has emboldened US adversaries
Unfortunately the US has rarely had a coherent foreign policy strategy other than the Monroe Doctrine and containment of Communism.
o China's rise, its smooth diplomatic technique, its re-alignment with Russia and its aggressive, clever drive to form new alliances with nations extending from Asia and Africa to South America
China's "smooth diplomatic technique"? Now the author's doing comedy. I'm not entirely convinced they're aligned with Russia, either. Russia is a huge, resource rich country with a declining population right next door to a hungry, growing country with a huge population. This is sort of like saying that the wolves and sheep have aligned against the humans.
o Russia's recent rise combined with Russian President Putin's domestic popularity and his reputation for effectively standing up to the West
Russia's rise? Dude - their population is IMPLODING. They're having to hold state sanctioned breeding days. Putin just showed his true colors by dissolving the governmnent. That certainly bodes well for Russia's future.
o The rise of non-aligned nations emboldened by the inability of the US to effectively use the extraordinary power it possesses
I would challenge the author here to name one of these non-aligned nations, and even if he does, I would be amazed if that nation mattered a whit on the international stage. I agree with the author that the US doesn't use the extraordinary power it has. We would likely disagree on the reasons for that failure. We don't use it effectively because whiny, candy-ass liberals keep us from effectively using our power. And no, I'm not a war hawk.
o A view among key global leaders that the US will be bogged down in Iraq for many years (a view heightened by significantly by President Bush's September 13 Iraq speech), thus distracted and unable to respond effectively to key political moves by the range of international players
There's a grain of truth in this one, although I don't believe anyone can judge how much just yet.
o A recognition by the international community that the Bush Administration not only hasn't been able to deal effectively with non-state actors (e.g. terror groups like Al Qaeda) but they are holding their own or starting to win
Al Qaeda isn't holding its own. Did this author hear General Petraeus' report this week?
“PURE and utter NONSENSE”
That’s not good enough. I’ve read you posts before and I know you are capable of a reasoned argument.
Try again and please explain where and how your opinion differs.
Your post 21 is more like it. Very responsible. Thanks.
I have lost a lot of patience with Freepers who comment on a long article with a bumper sticker complaint that doesn’t really address their disagreements. It smacks of an angry mob.
Yup. I’ve been reading about european anti americanism for many years. Same ol’ crap, different day. I was in Germany when Carter was prez. I was having a couple of brews with my kraut cousins in a tavern when a couple of other krauts at the table just had to tell me that they couldn’t stand the U.S., but americans were ok.
They’ve been writing these “America is over” articles since at least 1800.
What is a US-centric world? Was it ever a US-centric world?
Tend to agree with you on that post. I think it was more a US-led world than a US-centric world.
Also, it is true that US influence is on the wane. When you have a volatile dictator of a “no one gives a flying ****” country like Venezuela hurling profanities on the US president without any support from another superpower; without the fear of consequences, it says something about US-resolve to be respected and feared. The truth is Hugo Chavez doesn’t fear the US. I am not saying that he doesn’t fear what he knows the US has the ability to do but more what he knows is the US’ resolve to do in retaliation. This guy would have called even a pacifist US President the same names he called GW.
In order for the world to fear and respect the US again, it is important to make examples out of people. Choose one - Venezuela/Iran and blow the living crap out of their leadership. Don’t bother going to clean up the mess and sorting things out like in Iraq....let the people who voted such piss pots do that job themselves and don’t pay a dime to help in reconstruction. Of course...engineer a provocation which will give enough reason for NATO allies not to grumble.
Frankly though, I think it is good for the US that China and Russia have emerged/re-emerged. It gives the world someone to fear and hate. I think the US’s biggest problem since the end of the Cold war has been the lack of a formidable enemy. The truth is...if you don’t have an enemy, you don’t have a friend.
I'm afraid foreigners calling American presidents names is a long established tradition. Our adversaries do it, and our friends do it. And I've been following current affairs closely since the Vietnam era. Liberals tend to have this weird idea of Uncle Sam being able to throw his weight around at will. It just ain't so. Cuba is still communist. Nicaragua turned communist without us doing much about it, except a lame-ass insurgency that did not defeat the ruling communists. Fact is that we're not and we have never been the hand of God. The only instances where we managed to kick ass and take names involved outright invasion. In every other instance, we were merely rubber-stamping what some local despot (communist or non-communist, islamist or non-islamist) had achieved. Liberals like to pretend that we were all-powerful when liberals ran the place. That is a bunch of crap.
We are well-liked compared to every other power because we are seen as an honest broker, and we have largely open trade policies. The first is why many countries host American bases, and the second is why many countries have trade surpluses with us - we have open trade and they don't. Foreign countries have always felt free to express their resentments against Uncle Sam because unlike Russia and China, the US doesn't retaliate via trade and diplomatic channels. We are and have always never worried too much about what foreigners think about us - whereas the Russians and the Chinese expect trembling obedience.
Not quite. Check this out:
CIA WORLD FACTBOOK:
CHINA GDP: $10.17 trillion (2006 est.) (purchasing power parity) According to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/ch.html -
"Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2006 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income and 130 million Chinese fall below international poverty lines."
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