Harmonizing Jay and Mark

As part of a thread of emails today, Jay and Mark traded some thoughts. After assuring that Obama policies can heal the economy, Mark wrote: As a bonus, we might adopt a manner of behaving in the world that all Americans can be proud of. That is to say, we might behave with the ethic of the most powerful, mighty nation in the world and lead by example into peaceful democracy.

Jay replied: Just as an aside.....America already behaves in the world in a manner that I am proud of. No country in the world has ever sacrificed and given like we have and like we continue to do; economically, militarily, disaster relief, medically, the list goes on and on. Europe would be speaking German were it not for us. Pacific countries would be speaking Japanese were it not for us. S. Korea would be under communist control were it not for us. Russia would have continued to be a threatening, militarily dominant, bullying force were it not for us. And today with the whole world threatened by radical Islamic terrorism....we are carrying on the fight for all free nations....practically alone. Because of us the Iraqi people may soon have a free and independent nation. I am extremely proud of my countries behavior in the world.

I can't leave that alone. Because you know, we do great things and we do horrible things. We saved Europe from Hitler and Asia from Japan. Our deterence probably defeated the Soviet Union, but you can’t really say our power has been used well since. We saved half of Korea from despotic Communism, but Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have exposed our capabilities to global view, drained our resources and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. While we needed to reform Afghanistan in response to 911, we have yet to achieve stability there.

Yes, we’re capable of tremendous humanitarian effort, and a Godsend in natural tragedy. We have strong and powerful armies of people willing to sacrifice themselves and their families in the national interest. Jay, we owe it to this dedicated professional military to use them in defense of our country, to commit them to meaningful, constructive missions. Yes, we have the greatest universities in the world, incredible economic influence and magnificent people. But right now the world knows us for our movies and our Armies. Some of them are offended, many are afraid. No one is very impressed, and our enemies scoff us.

But it doesn’t matter now. In this election, in this economic collapse, in this strained military posture, the environment failing, we have no choice but to turn around. We can get together and focus on the good deeds our powerful country can achieve. We can rebuild the economy stronger and more transparent. We can find a graceful way to get out of Iraq. We can help Afghanistan find effective organization. We can defend our country from terror without terrorizing others. And we have the greatest communications capability ever known. We can stop commanding attention and start earning respect.

I have no argument with anyone, just a mutual need to understand the problem and fix it.