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The Great American Comeback

By Scott Bates, The Connecticut Post

Five years ago this week, our nation launched a war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Since then, America’s standing in the world has fallen faster than at any time in our nation’s history. It is tempting on this anniversary to look back to where we have been and look for answers as to how we have gotten to this place of diminishing expectations for our national future. However if we are to take control of our destiny once again, we must unite around an agenda for America’s future.

Before charting a course for the future, we should acknowledge where we stand today. Are we more secure? Five years after launching the war in Iraq, the Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan, North Korea has gained a nuclear arsenal, Al Qaeda has re-established a base of operations and Osama bin Ladin is still at large.

Are we more prosperous? The dollar is falling while inflation and unemployment are rising. We have paid for the war in Iraq by borrowing money from a rising China, so that we may in turn buy their products and weaken our own industrial base. America’s financial system is in disarray, bankruptcies and foreclosures are at record levels and the federal government has piled up trillions of dollars of new debt at the very time it should be saving to pay for baby boomers Social Security.

So that’s where we stand. The American Dream that says that we can provide a better future for our children is in mortal danger. To save the American Dream at home and build a safer and more secure world for our children, we must act with speed and unity of purpose. We can plan for a Great American Comeback by focusing on three issues; achieving energy independence, restoring economic competitiveness and building global security partnerships.

First, the next President and all members of the next Congress should pledge to have the United States achieve energy independence within five years. Their pledge should be sealed with a collective promise to resign if we fall short. Success is that important because energy independence is the key to solving economic and national security concerns. There will be those who say that the cost of developing alternative energy at such a pace is too great. But think of the cost of maintaining the status quo with the American people shipping billions of dollars a day out of our country and into the hands of anti-American regimes. By developing alternative energy and zero emission vehicles we can capture the global market for the next generation of high value products and create millions of new “green collar” jobs.

Second, we can restore America’s economic competitiveness by rebuilding our infrastructure, enforcing international trade deals and training workers who have lost their jobs due to foreign competition. Currently the U.S. economy loses billions due to congestion on our highways and delays in the air. Every dollar saved from winding down the war in Iraq should be invested directly into infrastructure projects that can move people and goods more efficiently. Investment in infrastructure and worker retraining will increase our economic competitiveness, which will in turn lead to a rise in profits for business and revenue for government.

Third, we must build new global partnerships based on mutual advantage to secure our long-term national security interests. The “my way or the highway” policies of the past five years have left us isolated around the world, which is a dangerous place to be when we need other nations support to make progress on a range of issues from curbing global warming, to preventing pandemics to fighting terrorism. The foundation of new global partnerships should be based on the idea that the United States wants a better life and a secure future not just for our people, but for all people. For the cost of one month’s combat operations in Iraq, we can double the Peace Corps and provide food and life saving medicine to millions more children than we reach with today’s foreign assistance. Rather than retreat from the world after our experience in Iraq, we should instead re-double our engagement with the world in ways, which bring mutual advantage and lay a new foundation that makes cooperation on the transnational issues of terrorism, the environment and public health much easier.

The decline of America’s economic strength at home and standing in the world abroad since the start of the Iraq War five years ago has led many around the world and here at home to question if this is the beginning of the end of the American Dream, the idea that our children will have more opportunity than we enjoy today. It will be up to each of us to provide the answer to that question, and to demand a plan of action from our leaders this year that can lead to a Great American Comeback.