Sleepykid

Reputation

REST HERE:

We should mince no words about it. After 9/11, America enjoyed the sympathy and support of the world. In less than six years, this powerful asset has been frittered away. But it doesn’t stop there. In its place, a great wave of hatred is building. And that presents a great peril to us, not just to reputation, but to our security.

These developments are the foreseeable consequence of the Bush administration’s policies. What is the antidote to them? I see in our recent past an excellent model which very effectively addresses these issues. The model I look to is Dwight David Eisenhower’s. A career soldier and battlefield tactician, Eisenhower knew what can and cannot be achieved on the battlefield. He knew that conquering a country is insufficient to governing or transforming it. He upheld the values of the Party of Lincoln – a party which has, to our great loss, all but disappeared from the stage in America. A party which laid the same stress on a commitment to justice that our Founding Fathers did.

Eisenhower said “Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” He was committed to caution in wielding our nation’s great military power, and careful deliberation and hesitancy before intervening with violence in the affairs of other countries. But he intervened and committed forces abroad when he judged this necessary because other courses had been exhausted or would be fruitless. Most importantly, he recognized that the reputation of America as a country committed to justice was a tool potentially more powerful than any bomb or missile system. Ike appreciated this as an asset he inherited as president and he was committed to pass to his successor. George Bush can make neither claim.