Let’s be clear about one thing. America has security and economic interests throughout the world. I wrote about this issue on February 8, 2011. Since then I have read Niall Furguson’s WANTED A GRAND STRATEGY FOR AMERICA in Newsweek and Brendan Greeley’s The Fallacy of Facebook Diplomacy in Businessweek. The two articles converge on the point that I made on February 8. The bottom line is we want economic certainty, physical security, and democracy all at the same time.
Our desires are appropriate but the people who would carry them out do not see the world through the eyes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Facebook calls for neat round pegs in round holes while the square pegs fit into their appropriate holes sort of like the neat way we try to manage our affairs in the West. Neither the potentates of the Middle East nor the populations of those nations see the world as Westerners.
What makes this situation all the more difficult is that Western leaders do not understand the culture of those nations. Thus we have the American government tied in knots. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has not shown himself to be a strong leader and that has resulted in no coordinated plan to address the issues.
If I was betting, I would expect that whoever ends up leading the nations of the Middle East in the future, it will not be the same as it has been over the past 40 years. America’s lack of leadership will result in a more hostile environment for American interests. If we could only figure out what our primary interests are!
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