Jamie

Weinstein

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December 23, 2008

Problems Throughout the World: Can America Handle All This?

It is hard to be positive these days.

Every time you open a newspaper (people still do that, right?) or turn on the TV, it seems as if the world is imploding. Prophets of gloom and doom abound, lashing out at American excess and predicting the decline of its power and prestige.

How can one not be pessimistic?

Externally, we face threats that just keep piling up. As Defense Secretary Bob Gates told columnist George Will, what makes this era of threats different from threats and crises of other eras is that today they "come up on the table and don't go off." Previously, he said, they seemed to "have a beginning and an end."  

Sit back and review all the myriad of different foreign policy challenges that confront us. It is staggering:

·         Iran is continuing its quest for nuclear weapons all the while its leaders continue to threaten America and Israel with destruction.

·         A resurgent, nationalistic Russia is trying to reclaim its former "glory" and influence in Eastern Europe, and is increasingly willing to flaunt its military apparatus to do so. In the process, it's buddying up to America's enemies.

·         The Middle East is a tinderbox.

·         Hugo Chavez continues to try to make himself President for Life in Venezuela and instigate anti-American socialist revolutions throughout South America. His country, like many of the countries with which we seem to have problems, also happens to sit on loads of oil.

·         Iraq has gotten a lot better, but there is still much work to be done. The threat that the situation in Iraq will be reversed after our soldiers leave looms in the background.

·         In Afghanistan, things aren't going so well. Taliban fighters and Al-Qaeda terrorists have sought sanctuary in the mountains of Pakistan where they are likely plotting the next great terror attack while they continue to foment instability in Afghanistan.

·         Pakistan itself is unstable and threatened by Islamist terrorists who would like nothing more than to take charge of the Pakistani state and its nuclear arsenal.

·         A nuclear Pakistan also finds itself again engaged in tensions with a nuclear India over the deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai.

·         While America is engaged with these momentous challenges, we are diverted from confronting the great moral tragedies that are being perpetrated on innocents in places like Sudan, Zimbabwe, and North Korea.

·         Speaking of North Korea, Kim Jong Il's bizarrely cruel regime possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, has attempted to spread nuclear technology to Syria, and continues to threaten the international arena while duping American leaders into believing that they sincerely wish to negotiate. 

·         In the midst of all this, policy makers must deal with the threats and challenges China's rise poses to America and its interests. 

As long as this list is, it is surely incomplete. Such a mish mash of crises alone would be enough to test the mettle of even the most able president, but the challenges are greatly magnified when you take into account the great economic troubles of which we are in the midst. Saying that we are entering the next Great Depression is probably overblowing it, but no one can deny that the economic problems the next president will face will be difficult to navigate – all the more so if we decide, unwisely, to begin nationalizing American companies. 

When one looks at the gravity of our challenges on the domestic front and then looks at all the threats that face us externally, there is a natural tendency to want to shrink from the world. In such an environment, Ron Paul's foreign policy rhetoric seems to sound like a siren song. "If we retreat from the world," the siren sings, "everything will be all right."

But everything won't be all right.

Despite the anti-American rhetoric that so freely flows from the mouths of international actors, the truth is that a world without a strong America is a world that is a dark and lonely place. It is an unfriendly world for American interests, a fearful and dangerous world for America's allies and a hopeless world for all those who sit under the boot of tyranny.

Domestically, we face structural problems that need to be resolved. Our entitlement programs, for instance, need to be reformed so that we can have a sound financial future. But even with all the problems we face, they pale in comparison to the problems our enemies face, not to mention the problems our allies face. It is much easier for Iranian and Venezuelan leaders to act like tough guys when oil is at $150 a barrel than it is when oil is below $40 a barrel.

There might be tough days ahead and we may face challenges that seem, at times, insurmountable. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's always been there before. Believing in the strength of America and its people to come through has always been a safe bet in the past, and I'm betting it will continue to be so.

Under no circumstance, however, can America afford to shirk its duties as the world's sole super power.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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