How easy it has been for past presidents to beat the drums for patriotism and convince us that going to war is the right course for our nation. They claim every avenue for peace and compromise has been exhausted, and with a heavy heart they realize that war is the only way. One of our wars was to stop a sequence in the communist plan for world dominion that would lead to our collapse, labeled as the domino theory. In a different instance, the enemy was thought to have been planning to develop advanced weapons, which would be used in sneak attacks on us, or their neighbors. In both cases we were wrong.
How difficult it is to conclude these wars and administer wisely to the nations we invade. Nation building was difficult because our country never really understood the nation we invaded. It seems like it should dawn on us that our country, which has proven to have so little talent for administration of foreign countries, should refrain from trying. But on we go, trying to teach good old American values to these nations, feeling like once they kick in, the people in those lands will be grateful for being fortunate enough to have been “liberated” by the U.S.A.
President Obama has been a leader who is wary of initiating warfare. But Republican presidential candidates criticize him for being too soft, and reluctant to teach lessons that our military is capable of providing. Most give the impression that if they were the president, our country would be once against respected for our military might, and values. But in my lifetime I have too often seen leaders similar to many of the Republican candidates, and too seldom those who were cautious. I concede that our country’s actions aboard have not all been perfectly conceived and executed under Obama’s administration. But perfection has never been in our playbook. Yet I think that the cautious leadership he provides is wiser and better for us than the leadership we would receive from most of the hotheaded Republicans candidates.
Roger Twito
Lynnwood
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