by James Glaser
May 9, 2002

I think of these phrases "missile defense treaty", "biological warfare", and "mutual assured destruction". All of these were used in a short piece on National Public Radio this morning. The men talking about these subjects could have been talking about a ball game or the maybe a new weather pattern for all the concern that they voiced.

I don't think that our media has a grasp of how really monumental these subjects are or they have immersed themselves in topics like these for so long, they have become jaded. I think that also goes for our State Department and I guess our government as a whole.

The question we should be asking ourselves as a nation about these types of military subjects, is why are we so concerned with them. Where are we headed?

Lets face it we are the "Top Dog". We lead and others follow, but somewhere we have lost that lead mentality. Now we no longer set the pace or the tone of the world. We have leaders who are waiting for others to do something so that we can react. This is a hold over from the Cold War. Everything back then was "tit for tat". The Soviet Union would do one thing and we would do something to counter act that move.

Well we don't have that "Russian Bear" looking across the world at us any longer and we now have to make one up so we now have the "Rogue Nation" and Saddium Hussain to be our foil.

Where are we headed?, when we let a nation like Iraq set the tone of our foreign policy or some mythical rogue, who we never see.

Our country was started by men of not only vision, but action too. Here we are on "top of the heap" and our leaders are trying to make counter moves, to out wit those who haven't even come close to the top.

Here is our chance to lead, the field is open to us and we have a Constitution that really could be the envy of all. The only trouble is that we no longer live by our own Constitution. No, we have to be out there meddling in every other countries problems. The Serbs hate the Croats, who hate the Muslims, and we are in the middle telling all how to behave? Sure makes us friends there. We are starting to become that Rogue Nation. It is the United States of America that is out there bombing other countries. Where is that in the constitution?

If we would look to the Constitution for some guidance and once again started to protect our borders, start bringing our thousands and thousands of troops home, the rest of the world would look up and see that we were trying to reduce any perceived threat that we impose on them.

When our country starts to act like a "good neighbor" and not the bully on the block, other nations will give our form of government another look. If we have the will power to lead by example and start making our own country a better place and stop worrying about what others are doing we will find that "Rogue States" will be looking for other fish to fry.

We have this wonderful country with a great set of standards in our Constitution, that if we would follow these standards or rules we would find other peoples trying to emulate us. If we continue down the path of subversion of our Constitution we will have to continue to live in fear of some group trying to get at us with some terroristic bombing or letting a biological agent cripple us. The choice is ours to make. We can lead the world in arm sales or tractor sales. One will come back to hurt us , while the other will come back to feed us.