Tuesday, July 20, 2010

THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD by Fareed Zakara

I bought this book expecting the worse and was proven wrong. The author includes many instances over hundreds of years in his attempt to assume the factors leading to the rise and fall of nations.
His conclusion is not that America will decline in stature but that the rest of the world is improving to where our influence will not be as great over the next decades as it has been since the late 1800’s.
Without checking I will grant that his history of the world is accurate. I found no glaring errors from my limited knowledge. He points out that America’s strength is in the innovation and determination of our citizens and that our weakness is our political system as it has evolved to where the two parties continuously parley for dominance without working together to resolve issues. I certainly agree with this. I have written many times how money distorts the election process.
He is firmly convinced that our military is very strong, far superior to other nations but that even so our enemies today and in the future will not be daunted by this power as it will be impossible to use it for fear of harming civilians. I agree with this also. Sending a million dollar missile to blow up a vehicle isn’t cost effective from my point of view. Part of the reason we are going deeper and deeper into debt is to support thousands of bases throughout the world. No other country does this. Even if this gives us an advantage to move quickly he reasons that going it alone as was the policy of Bush, Cheney just cannot continue. The world resents what they consider to be bullying tactics. He asks that we become more humble and instead of telling our allies what they must do he believes we should listen as well. What a novel idea.
I disagreed with his comments on illegal immigration and the threat from Islamic terrorists. He believes that the illegal immigrants just want jobs. We hear this over and over from those who can’t wait to grant citizenship to millions here illegally. Work visas where there is a need to those willing to work but not welfare, free medical, free schooling and all the rest. We simply cannot afford “cheap tomatoes” anymore. I got this phrase from an e-mail about how truly expensive it is when all costs are considered. As to Islamic terrorists, he minimized this threat concentrating on the growth of China and India. In my opinion this is the most serious threat we face as these people want domination and are willing to kill and die to accomplish their goal whereas China and India’s people are just learning and working harder to compete which is the way it should be. I am sure our president while reading will learn from it and perhaps use it to govern better but if he continues his love affair with Islam instead of facing this threat to the world we will be sorry he did. On that fateful day not too far in the future it will be too late.
My copy is available for anyone interested.

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