No longer does Europe and America share a "strategic culture" in solving the problems, each believe they have with the rest of the world. The position of power that the United States has assumed since World War II has caused a deep resentment and division, or divide, between European intellectuals and Americans, and it is at an all time high. This divergent way of thinking is so radically different that writers like Robert Kagan, the author of Of Paradise and Power, has written that, "Europeans are more conscious of the growing differences; perhaps because they fear them more." They believe, according to Kagan, at its most extreme, that America's caricature in Europe is dominated by a "culture of death;" its warlike tendencies a reflection of the natural product of a violent society. So where does that leave us as Americans? Barack Obama has given speeches, more like lip service, to the European sentiment recently, but, as an American President, does he mean it? Who knows?- We are still fighting on foreign soil and will be for years to come. European intellectuals disagree with America's Hobbesian view of the world. They do not believe, as most American politicians do, in unilateralism in solving international problems.
My view is that the United States, while needing to protect the land we all love, also has a responsibility to give Americans the freedoms in the world that we once had. What does this mean? It means that our actions abroad by virtually every President since Teddy Roosevelt has meddled too much in world affairs, under the guise of "protecting our interest abroad." The result of that mindset has all of us taking our shoes off at the airport and not being able to carry on board a short flight from Dallas to Houston common necessities for travel. Every empire has made the same mistakes. Our Presidents goes abroad resembling Roman emperors rather than the top elected leader of America. This has been true for a long time. Now America and Americans are the focal point of the world's problems whether real or not. That is a problem!
Most Americans find many parts of the globe "off limits" to them now or they risk being taken captive or killed. I recently read a book by the author John L. Dupuis. The title is Third Party Candidate. The novel takes the reader to the ultimate end of the Hobbesian view of the world by the American Government. The ultimate disaster befalls America and the people suddenly rebel against the old ways. Ironically, one more unilateral act is needed before American semi-isolationism can begin. This book compares with 1984 by Orwell. I recommend it highly to anyone who wants to see what our future will hold if we continue down this path of "Imperialistic" behavior. The novel Third Party Candidate is very different from Kagan's book. Kagan is a think tank writer and Dupuis is a Novelist; but both books give great insight into the behavior and the end result of the behavior of American foreign policy. Not since Pope Alexander VI divided the world in half by bestowing the western portion of the world to Spain and the eastern half to Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) has the world seen such power being exerted by one group of world leaders. The world has truly been divided again, by the foreign policy intentions the United States and the short sighted politicians that control our collective fates. Both books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and other book stores. http://www.alstair.net to see book trailers.
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