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While enjoying my wake-up cup of joe this morning, a distant memory struck me, a recollection of two words that I haven't seen in print nor heard spoken in many years now.
Whatever happened to the words "American prestige" ?
Well, it didn't take long for me to answer my own question.
Over and over, the current administration has displayed a disregard for world opinion and a reckless go-it-alone attitude that has cost our nation the position of world leadership that we once enjoyed. Under GWB, the US has actually become the grotesque caricature so often used to demonize us; we are alternately the belligerant gunslinger, the pushy American, and the black-hearted capitalist.
As examples, I could cite: Kyoto, Iraq, our tardy response to the tsunami in South Asia. We are now something closer to global pariah than global leader.
We seem to have misplaced our "American prestige" somewhere during the last four years, and the chances are prettly slim that we're gonna find it anytime during the next four years. I just hope that, one day, we'll be able to undo the damage.
I almost wish that the thought hadn't crossed my mind, because it's really beginning to piss me off...
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