Dear Mr. Vanderleun,

You've nailed the question: Pax Americana or Lax Americana? Sacrifice or appeasement? Free speech, free enterprise and free elections, or 9/11 every month and Bali bombings on the weekends?

The truly scary thing is how many people want to live in a bubble world, not realising till too late that freedom entails responsibility, and that liberty is, sadly, too often paid for in blood. We either learn, or we perish.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Ness.

"In the other corner, wearing trunks monogramed with the dollar sign, a hard hat obsessed with deficits and encumbered with a large crucifix, we have the party of “constraint and caution.” Nominally Republican this faction is exemplified by forces within the current administration, such as State, that act as a brake on the administration’s plans to take out increasing military insurance against the clear and present enemies of the United States. Hence, the seemingly endless Minuet with the United Nations over Iraq and Israel that we endure as a self-imposed check on our power."

The way I see it is that we need to exert leadership, which I think we are. Where the UN is willing to follow, we leave the door open. Where they aren't, we go on without them. Eventually, if we do things right, that 90:10 opposition we meet, especially in continental Europe, will turn around.

Robert Kagan has written an excellent book on the differences between the US and Western Europe: *Of Paradise and Power*. There's nothing like getting people invested in a project, to turn around their prejudices. It's a difficult balance though. And if we intend to ask the Europeans to place their "paradise" in jeapardy, by making the appropriate investments in a military force that would give them some voice in the project, we ought to be able to ask our own citizens to do something similar. By, for instance, cutting back on oil consumption. Or, better yet, investing in alternative energy sources. Of course, that would mean coopting the "light greens" to some extent, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

You know, the one thing that Michael Moore is right about (although he presents the case dishonestly) is that the less money we spend on oil the less money will go into supporting extremist madrasas and terrorist cells. I only hope God forgives me for saying Moore is right about anything. But that's just good common sense, and sometimes even bad people have that. And a leader with the guts to ask Americans for a little participation might be surprised to find how willing they are.

If what defines us as Americans is something more that the Big Mac, the expecting too little of us is like settling for a "second best" version of happiness and fulfillment. And the world might actually be inspired to find that we too think the superficial stuff isn't up to snuff.

So I take your point about "political uncertainty." I think we can wring some of it out, with a little intestinal fortitude.

--Scott