James A. Leach: “26 months after 9/11 and 7 months after the conclusion of major combat operations in Iraq, America is in a strategic…”

“26 months after 9/11 and 7 months after the conclusion of major combat operations in Iraq, America is in a strategic pickle and Americans are in a judgmental quandary. The issue of our engagement in Iraq demands that we, as a society, probe the question of the limits of the superpower's power and the possible anomaly that there are severe liabilities to power, particularly for a superpower. Does, for instance, overwhelming military might protect us from terrorism or, if used unwisely, increase our vulnerability to terrorism? Likewise, does overwhelming economic power ensure loyalty or buy friendship from the countries most indebted to the United States? In other words, can military and economic might ever become a substitute for sensible and sensitive foreign policy? And given the dilemma of Iraq, could it, indeed, be that the most important ``multibillion'' problem America faces is not deficits measured in dollars, fiscal, or trade, but the antagonism of billions of people around the world who object to our current foreign policy?”