Safety First, Pocketbook Second
Frederick W. Kagan, American Enterprise Institute | October 31, 2008
America might think Wall St. and Main St. are now more important than Haifa St.; They are wrong. ++ From WWII to 9/11, history has shown that economic crises and America’s resulting inward attention are the seeds of global conflict. ++ Threats, such as the situations in Pakistan and Iran, could escalate at any time. ++ Al Qaeda and Iranian terror networks are not threats but enemies who are “trying to kill Americans right now.”++ The lives of Americans “rest on the way the president interacts with our enemies” and security should come first.
Tags: | US Foreign Policy |
US elections 2008 |
security policy |
financial crisis |
American isolationism |
Sat, Nov 1st 2008, 01:52
Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Platinum Contributor (201)
On the other hand, directing tunnel vision to another scene, a very robust military stance, will not serve the people of the world adequately either.
Starting with global warming that the main factor in several other kinds of environmental degradation, there are several other canopy issues gathered under that main "big top," and failure to deal with them properly will make our best efforts toward improving the security situations of nations, the economy of the world, and all the traditional planning categories impossible to manage correctly.
One of the reasons for a hierarchical organization in the military is that a single strike against an enemy such as al-Qaeda can only be a tactical move -- and an unguided move may appear desirable in itself but go counter to one's strategic interests. To have a useful grand strategy, the leadership of the world must have a clear outline in mind of primary factors, secondary factors, etc., and how they are interrelated.
It is unlikely that any one leader can have a breadth of vision adequate to comprehend all the "battlefield." It would be much better if responsible world leaders can put ego issues aside, form a moving consensus on what the total situation is, and then make serious attempts to deal with it systematically -- and that includes ongoing reevaluations of progress.