Paper Tiger

For some time now I have been uneasy about the action of the U.S. in response to the situations which have arisen in the past few years. The problem has become increasingly evident though the presidencies of the two Bushes and Clinton. In these years we have become increasingly less willing to assert our perogatives and act as the lone superpower on earth should. When Reagan took the oath of office, the Iranians released the hostages immediately. This act revealed an enlightened self-interest which is currently being exhibited again by the Iranians as they openly pursue nuclear weapons because they know that Bush is content to wait for the U.N. to pass another worthless resolution despite opposition from Russia and China. This passive response by Bush is proceeding despite repeated assurances from Ahmadinejad that he will use these same weapons to eliminate Israel.

In Iraq, you have very little talk about victory in a specific sense. Instead, we hear about wanting stability and our generals appear before congressional committees explaining why they can't defeat a militia headed by Muqtada al-Sadr. In the meantime our soldiers who were trained to wage war venture out of the Green Zone to pass out candy and soccer balls to children in the streets.

In other areas we sit by and let Putin resurrect a dictatorship in Russia while providing Iran with anti-aircraft missiles and nuclear technology to be used against us. We let Hugo Chavez solidify his hold on an important country in South America while he develops anti-American alliances with Iran, North Korea and liberals like Joe Kennedy who accepts his heating oil to help the "poor". We apologize for removing 6 Islamic clerics from and airplane, offer to provide them with a meditation room at airports while denying our children in elementary school the right to sing Christmas carols.

Osama bin Laden said early on that America would cave in as we did in Somalia under Clinton, fail to follow through on commitments liked Bush 41 did when he asked the Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, and Bush 43 is continuing in the same timid vein when he ignores his post 9/11 assertion that we would hold those nations who harbor and support terrorists to full account. Such nonsense. How frightened is Iran right now? Syria? Venezuela? North Korea?

It is all very sad and ominous.