President Obama speaks on U.S. policy in the Middle East at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., on May 19, 2011. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via Bloomberg)
Re: Why U.S. leadership matters, April 3 Perspective article.
Amazing: Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt compared unfavorably President Obama s cautious foreign policy in today s world with the aggressive policies of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower in an entirely different world. But Vietnam, which might offer some comparisons? Nowhere.
Is today s Middle East like Europe, Japan and Korea back then; is our warring in the Middle East like our warring in World War II; and are the aftermaths the same? No.
George W. Bush s wars in a religiously fundamentalist, anarchic Middle East, coinciding with ruinous GOP economic policies at home, before 2001 and after, severely damaged the United States economically, politically and socially. Obama inherited a nation which cannot afford to lead the world s police forces here and there and which doesn t much want to do so.
Where would Hiatt have our young men and women fight and die now?
Daniel W. Brickley, Littleton
This letter was published in the April 11 edition.
