Home > The world watches as the US attempts its restoration

The world watches as the US attempts its restoration

by Open-Publishing - Monday 24 October 2005
9 comments

Catastrophes USA

by Stephen Walt

Americans normally shrug off newspaper headlines overseas, unconcerned by what the rest of the world thinks of us. But the events of recent months have turned a not-so-flattering mirror back upon the US, forcing us to think seriously about what it is the rest of the world is seeing.

The hurricanes that struck America’s Gulf coast this autumn were just the beginning of a series of storms - both physical and political - that have done significant damage to the already fragile US image overseas. Seen through the eyes of an international audience, the images of destitute African Americans left to fend for themselves in a wasted New Orleans, of Tom DeLay, Speaker of the House, indicted and of a White House struggling to salvage a Supreme Court nominee and belatedly waking up to the dangers of bird flu, combined to create a powerful impression of insensitivity and ineptitude. Coming on the heels of a war that cast grave doubt on US leadership, these storms and our response threaten America’s stature in the world.

The US’s ability to shape world events rests on three pillars. The first is our economic and military power. The second is others’ belief that we are using that power properly. And the third is confidence in US competence. When other countries recognise our strength, support our aims and believe that we know what we are doing, they are more likely to follow our lead. If they doubt our power, our wisdom or our ability to act effectively, US global influence shrinks. Even before the storms, the Iraq war was corroding all three elements of US power. Our armed forces have been weakened and our economy burdened by the costs of occupation, and the abuses at Abu Ghraib jail are a stain on the US’s reputation.

The new Iraqi constitution will not end the insurgency and the bungled occupation has given others ample reason to doubt the US’s ability to handle complex political challenges. At home, the aftermath of the storms has made matters worse in every way, as noted by foreign observers. The Russian newspaper Novosti described the US as "a giant on legs of clay, with one foot planted in New Orleans and the other in Baghdad". Germany’s Die Zeit asked: "How can America expect to save the world when it cannot even save itself?"

Katrina reinforced foreign perceptions of the US as a wealthy but heartless country where racism is endemic and safety nets are lacking. The China Daily said these events revealed "just how fragile much of America’s social fabric is" and Japan’s Asahi Shimbun declared that "Katrina showed the world the seriousness and the sorrow of the racial disparities facing the US".

Finally, the inept US response to sequential natural disasters reinforced foreign doubts about America’s competence. As Austria’s Salzburger Nachrichten put it: "How is it possible that the country is so ill prepared?"

Thus, as Americans turn to the task of reconstruction, we must do so in a way that restores confidence in our values and our abilities. First, to ensure that the US’s overall power remains intact, President George W. Bush must ask the American people to accept the full burden of their national ambitions. If we want to repair the damage the storms wrought, prepare for bird flu, maintain a military that is second to none, have world-class schools and exercise energetic global leadership, it is going to cost money - and it is going to require sacrifices from those who have it, rather than those who do not. Anyone who says differently is either lying or deluded.

Rebuilding New Orleans is also an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to provide for all our citizens. If New Orleans is rebuilt with condominiums for the rich, financed by cutting needed social programmes, or if the reconstruction effort is derailed by corporate greed and congressional pork, the rest of the world will have even more reason to question our values and competence. But if reconstruction is swift and New Orleans becomes a showcase of local opportunity and social justice, we will begin to restore the world’s faith in US leadership.

In the past, the US was respected because its public institutions could set ambitious goals and then achieve them: recall the New Deal, the Manhattan Project, the Marshall Plan and the moon landing. This stormy season produced tragedies for many but we now have the opportunity to show what America can do. The world is watching; we had better not blow it.

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ksgnews/Features/opeds/101805_walt.htm

Forum posts

  • We blew it.

    • Blow back..Big time...
      cheers, jt

    • gw lacks the moral will the politcal insight. the obscene profits of his oil cronies,the narrow agenda he dances to, guarantees cyclops will stumble and miss the mark.

    • Well done. Agree with everything in the article. How ever we might and should realize that this administration is a failure and is heading us in the wrong direction-as the author points out. We are the only industrial country without a goverment all inclusive health plan.—as far as education goes,-China graduates 700,00 engineers in the same time frame that we produce 70,000. We are way down on the list of infant birth deaths, Our prized graduate schools are not as productive as most foriegn schools, scientific research is more productive in other countries,,our color line is more prominent than most countries, our government is less honest than others, We are the country who has had affirmative action for whites since the Mayflower landed-but now we fight affirmative action that is sorely needed to help right the wrongs of the past for economic and educational efforts. I am an American, and Black. I know that we can do better and will—but not under the present government
      Clinton Warner

  • "World-class schools?" What is this crap? According to the PISA study of 2003, America was 24th out of 29 countries tested. Even Korea managed to do better. The government has been dumbing down education for years; they want dumb consumers and cannon-fodder, not citizens who think and act for themselves. When my nephew was in high school in England, his physics teacher took him and several other pupils to a physics symposium in California. There, they found that their level of education was higher than second year university students. European levels of education are much higher than in the USA; America only survives because so many foreigners still go there to work in advancing the sciences. For more information on where America is lagging behind the rest of the world, follow this link: http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

  • Any sensible person would note that a state-run Chinese newspaper’s criticism of America’s "social fabric" is pretty rich. Ever seen coverage of a Chinese corruption trial? The trial takes one afternoon and consists of everyone in the courtroom trashing the defendant. The Chinese state-run broadcast invariably concludes its report with the cheerful observation that, immediately following the trial, the defendant was taken away and shot.

    Any readers out there concerned about China’s policy of using forced abortions to limit couples to one child? Does that bother you, or will you let it slide because you believe the world has too many Chinese people?

    "We have the worst form of government on earth, except for the others."

    —Ben Franklin, later quoted by Winston Churchill

    • No actually I wish the Chinese would be in charge of investigation Cheneyburton and Bu$hco, a swift disbatch in the morning would be true justice for a change.

      And if there was ever a good argument for abortion other than over population, it is you, late term in your case should be totally legal and required.

    • For 65.128. Let’s not focus so much on the Chinese. To paraphrase the Gospel,"Do not look so much at the mote in your brother’s eye, when you have a beam of wood in your own".
      If this country wishes to continue being the beacon of the free world it once was, most of its citizens must drop this hypocritical stance expressed by your post. Hypocrisy is an unacceptable form of denial, it also breeds an easy contempt for others and yields no moral or spiritual growth for the hypocrite. It is denial, in the sense that you pretend to uphold a moral standard only when it conveniences you. It is denial because you are basically lying about how well you uphold your own personal moral code. Griping about other countries’ moral shortcomings shouldn’t be on the agenda, and it reveals to any intelligent listener your blindness to your own shortcomings. Concentrate on your own shortcomings. Concentrate on things you can control.This is all kindergarten shit you apparently didn’t pay any attention to in class.
      Upholding a moral code requires honesty and backbone as well as common sense. I’m afraid most Americans have lost all these virtues.

    • Anyone who does not believe in evolution has to look no further than the "Christian" religion which has "evolved" into everything it used to preach against. War is peace, lies are justified, murder is okay if it gets you what you want...etc.

      What ever happened to Jesus’s teachings of love, and peace, and caring about one another? Are they just out of date and quaint? Is who’s God is the toughest and most destructive and dangerous really what Jesus would have wanted for his followers? I am totally amazed at how far away "Christians" are from the Jesus they claim to follow. Money is all the Pat Robertsons, James Dobsons, Robert Schuler like "representatives" of Christ care about. Then there is the Catholics, the largest pedophile ring in the world, not to mention Bush who is the single largest mass murder and warmonger alive while claiming to be a "born-again" Christian.....if Jesus came back today he would be embarassed and appalled to see his name being used by these Charlatans and false prophets. And he would be sad and angry to see the likes of Bush doing his terrible deeds in Jesus’s name, even claiming God told him to go to war in Iraq. How can anyone not see how far away these institutions are from the Jesus they describe? Who caould be so blind?