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Comment IPS Features |
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I have always believed America, at its core, is fundamentally moral and we reject the leaders who violate our collective sense of decency. Even when I considered our leaders’ actions misguided, short sighted, or flat wrong, I maintained a naïve trust, an idealistic armor, that these leaders must prove themselves noble or suffer severe rebuke. I am losing this confidence. The ‘sins of omission’ like Katrina did not spawn this crisis because limited capabilities and inertia often hamper the response to unforeseen events. My crisis is a response to the ‘sins of commission’ that have become so common. Timid acceptance of the Preemption Doctrine and its application to a dictator that posed little threat tarnished my ‘fundamental goodness’ armor. Gaps appeared when the responsibility for widespread prisoner abuse was diverted onto a select and junior few. Now, I am stripped bare by revelations of the CIA’s secret worldwide prison network. The American experiment requires that each generation preserve and broaden a unique sense of honor that appreciates the basic dignity of all people, even our enemies. Yes, a devoted enemy attacked us but this is not our first and likely not our last challenge. We can not, however, use these attacks as the excuse to lose our sense of who we are and what we stand for. Last week my son indicated that he may want to follow me into the Naval Academy. I am struggling to determine if that is such a great idea.
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