Dear Friends of CCI,
Our nation is in a Catch-22. I believe a major awakening could be ahead. Coronavirus, the tip of the iceberg of fear, has finally gotten the attention of America’s upper classes. Outstanding articles appearing in prominent places are questioning the very basis of America’s current national and international policies. Hopefully this will continue until there is a better understanding of our place in the world and treaties are in place.
Katrina vanden Heuvel captures our dilemma in the article below.
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
After this pandemic passes, America needs a reckoning with its national security
April 7, 2020
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
After this pandemic passes, there must be a profound reckoning. I’m not referring to President Trump’s abysmal performance in the crisis; the election in November will render citizens’ judgment on that. No, there must be a reckoning with the profound failure of the United States’ domestic and foreign policies and priorities, a failure that was apparent even before covid-19 revealed the catastrophic bankruptcy of our national security strategy.
Less than 30 years ago, with the end of the Soviet Union, the United States basked in the role of the world’s sole superpower. An establishment consensus quickly congealed. Scholars proclaimed the “end of history,” announcing the U.S. model — liberal democracy and market fundamentalism — was the ultimate endpoint of human progress. Corporate-led globalization would bring untold prosperity to the United States and spread it across the globe. America’s unrivaled military dominance would enable it to police an unruly world, spreading the blessings of democracy. Though partisan differences might exist in emphasis and rhetoric, the consensus — and the overweening arrogance — would be unassailable. The United States, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asserted, was the “indispensable nation,” while an anonymous George W. Bush adviser boasted, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”