From the perspective of five years, it is easy to see the severe damage to America's prestige, military and economic power, reputation for competence, and, most importantly, credibility. We are seen as musclebound, mendacious, and stupid. What we say is simply not to be believed. This is seen every day in domestic politics, but it is even more pronounced overseas. The giant has lost its way and its not clear how a new president is going to find it any time soon.
"The winner of the 2008 elections will command U.S. forces still at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and against elusive terrorists with a deadly reach. The U.S. economy will remain burdened. ... America's moral leadership and decision-making competence will continue to be questioned," begins a study of foreign-policy choices for the next president, which a Georgetown University task force released last month.
"Restored respect will come only with fresh demonstrations of competence," the study said.
The numbers don't inspire confidence: Oil prices are at an all-time high, the dollar at new lows against the euro. Surveys find the United States' popularity and respect slipping in every part of the globe except Africa. A poll of 3,400 active and retired U.S. military officers by Foreign Policy magazine found that 88 percent agreed with the statement that "The war in Iraq has stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin."
"Since 9/11, the United States has been exporting fear and anger rather than the more traditional values of hope and optimism. Suspicions of American power have run deep," Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state under Bush, and Joseph Nye, a Pentagon official under President Clinton, wrote in a December report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"At the core of the problem is that America has made the war on terrorism the central component of its global engagement," they wrote.
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