FEAST OR FAMINE [Mark Krikorian]
I really hate the "pox on both your houses", "radical centrist" pose that too many people adopt (not on the Corner, though!), but at the risk of being accused of such deviationism, the neighboring columns in today's Post by Ignatius and Krauthammer demarcate the two unrealistic poles of today's debate over America's role in the world. Ignatius wrings his hands about how "we have tarnished those ideals in the eyes of the rest of the world", and "We are slowly shredding the fabric that defines what it means to be an American," and how "We are eating up this seed corn" of inherited goodwill abroad. The solution to our being "reviled" abroad "involves traveling, sharing, living our values, encouraging our children to learn foreign languages and work and study abroad. In short, it means giving something back to the world." Give me a break.
On the other hand, Krauthammer gets a little carried away with himself in the other direction, writing about how our monuments to foreign liberators demonstrate our devotion to "liberty for its own sake." Well, maybe, but he might also be reading a little too much into it. Sure, a Gandhi statue may not have had any ulterior motive, but isn't it possible that statues to Irish, Ukrainian, or Italian revolutionaries might have just a wee bit to do with ethnic pandering? Not that there's anything wrong with that, and his point isn't entirely without foundation, but a little realism (if I might use that word) isn't a bad thing. |
