America's New Foreign Policy for the 21st Century

Great #CharlieRose tonight on the future of American foreign policy. Def try to catch it w OnDemand or on the web if this topic is your thing. Several progressive & fresh ideas that have been givens in the activist community for decades are now finally starting to trend in the mainstream w top government officials. The NeoCons have been proved wrong and are being called out for bankrupting America, both financially and morally, as well as for the devastating effects their policies had on America's reputation globally.

It turns out the Obama administration has done an excellent job over the last four years helping to repair that damage and has been leading America towards a more peaceful, diplomatic and aligned foreign policy with other more forward thinking nations. We've still got a long way to go in reversing our reputation as the world's bully-police (think Iran or drone attacks), but progress has been made. Let us pray it continues.

Tonight's program - featuring a round table discussion with four top level national security and/or military advisors - was yet another reminder how important this upcoming election is, specifically in terms of America not allowing old school war mongering and dictatorial ideologies (think the ridiculous and out dated notion of "American Excptionalism") to ever take root in the White House again. Not if we want to truly succeed in the new century; withOUT old fashioned hegemonic wars being waged in multiple countries for no other reason than we're still stuck in the outdated and no longer respected Cold War mentality that dominated our 20th century foreign policy. The basic point being postulated by all men on the panel was that the United States still has a role to play as stabilizer, but no longer in purely dictatorial positions using brute force or military might. That we need instead to work with other allied countries to influence and help bring stability to developing countries, but not get directly involved, and only if and when our presence is actually wanted.

Like I said, these are not new ideas for some of us. Forward thinking scholars and even politicians have been saying these things since America first started becoming the world's worst terrorist organization post World War II; but to hear them being spoken about in public in the mainstream media is a very new trend. Let us hope for all our sakes that the right people are listening.

Eventually they'll have to. Because as many have pointed out, the biggest threat now to America's security is its weak economic state. And at our current and traditional rate of war-starting and other-nation building, along with our old style of defense spending, we are quickly diluting our once very strong American empire. Whole new paradigms for our role in the world need to be researched and considered if we are to maintain the strength and stability on the world stage that we've enjoyed over the last sixty plus years. There are plenty of democracies around the world now, most with stronger economies domestically than the United Stated has. So using the excuse of "liberators" or bringing "freedom and democracy" to other countries, often times uninvited and for overtly transparent ulterior motives just wont work anymore in the new century. Electing a conservative at this time in our history, domestically and globally, might just be the absolute worst thing America could do at this time until so called conservatives make some serious changes to their world view and how they see America's role in that world.