Confidence in America
Posted in International News
May. 8, 2008 at 04:51
by BrendaBee
I have always enjoyed articles by Fareed Zakaria, but in his most recent article in Newsweek is outstanding in it's understanding of the state of the world. It is a long article, but very much worth reading. His premise is that we Americans have nothing to fear in todays world and very much to be proud of and look forward to. In point of fact we Americans have succeeded in our mission of spreading democracy and prosperity to the rest of the world. The dream that America has represented to the world is now realized. It has meant that we no longer dominate in many areas, but we now have partners among many countries in the world rather than sometimes resentful supplicants.He admits many of our fears and the dangers in today's world, but he puts them in perspective. A perspective that we often forget in this information overloaded world that keeps us so informed of what is happening everywhere in the world right now that we forget what we have endured and passed successfully thru in the past. One quote from his article sums it up: "The bottom line is this: since 9/11, Al Qaeda Central, the gang run by Osama bin Laden, has not been able to launch a single major terror attack in the West or any Arab country—its original targets. They used to do terrorism, now they make videotapes. Of course one day they will get lucky again, but that they have been stymied for almost seven years points out that in this battle between governments and terror groups, the former need not despair." Never thought of it that way, have you? Neither had I, but yes it is true: now Al Qaeda is a bunch of unruly gangs running around blowing up restaurants and funerals and not the big bad guys we have built them up to be. They just may get lucky again but we have a handle on it. We have survived worse.
Take time to read this article. I think that like me you will come away feeling better about the world and agreeing that all that Zakaria says is true. You might even smile and ask yourself why you didn't see this for yourself. Especially if as in my case you have happened to live thru the most exciting part of this global acquisition of the American dream. And you will take more pride in just how damned good we Yanks are to have lifted the countries of the world almost single handed and against adversaries in less that a century.
Then you can go back to despairing that Skip Alston and Billy Yow were both reelected to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. BB
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