Newsweek: "Bush can transform himself into a unifying global leader"

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6729312/site/newsweek/

Today, as during the last century, the world again needs America, but America also needs the world. The world will not be more peaceful or prosperous, and certainly not more democratic, if America isolates itself and turns its back on those—especially its traditional European allies—with whom it shares truly fundamental democratic values. Nor will America be more secure if it transforms itself into a lonely fortress in a hostile world.

Yet a paradox haunts America: it is more powerful by far than any other state in the world, but its official rhetoric since 9/11 is that of a fear-driven nation. Though other states have also been victimized, none have politically elevated occasional terrorism into a national obsession. The grave strategic risk is that America's declaration of a vague "global war against terrorism" as its principal mission may unite sundry fanatical religious, political and ethnic groupings—potentially even much of Islam—in active hatred of an isolated America.

President George W. Bush is alert to this danger. As he put it on Aug. 4, "We actually misnamed the war on terror. It ought to be the struggle against ideological extremists who do not believe in free societies..." And he is absolutely right. But it also follows that this struggle must be pursued, not only militarily but politically as well, by a grand alliance of democratic states.

The world at large needs to hear a compelling voice that defines a global role for America that simultaneously inspires a shared vision, infuses historical confidence, restores credibility and widens consensus. Roosevelt, Churchill and Truman at one point were each politically very divisive and personally even despised figures. Yet each transcended himself when confronted by an almost apocalyptic encounter with destiny. So let us hope.