Phendrana Drifts

I have not always agreed with what Mr. Tony Blair has been saying or doing recently, but one quote from his recent speech to the United States Congress I thought was rather poignant:

"As Britain knows, all predominant power seems for a time invincible, but, in fact, it is transient. The question is: What do you leave behind?"

It is a question that I hope the Bush administration and more importantly the American people are asking themselves. As it stands right now, the record is not too great. Their rise to preeminence was all but saving western civilization from self-annhilation in the Second World War but since then their legacy has been, well far from the British standard from the 18th and 19th century. I am often wrong (just ask Allie) but I worry that the methods in which the United States is choosing to influence other nations is not positive (well, I am still happy with the jobs done in Japan and Germany, but other than that). Mao may have been right in saying political power came from the barrel of a gun but I am not sure democracy does. A democratic regime takes effort, time, understanding and most importantly resources, things which the United States seems reluctant to put into Afghanistan and now Iraq. As the American administration sits in their office planning their next campaign, I hope they remember the after-war costs as well. Since 1945 the United States has demonstrated time and time again they can kick the shit out of any nation on Earth, be it Vietnam, Russia or Iraq - but it is how they have dealt with military victory that has been an absolute disaster.

People have asked what I think the United States should do. I'm not sure why I am being asked, but since they asked - if the United States is going to engage in violent military conflict (and this is a if, because I don't think they have to as often as they do) they should be prepared to end it. The cost of peace far exceeds that to wage war and it takes billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of personnel and a sensitivity to what they are doing. Regardless of whether the United States is right or wrong in going to war, there is undoubtedly a right way to finish the war you have started. And so far, the plan in Iraq is not it.

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