Guest Post By Mark Allen Haverty
In Georgia, the redrawing of map lines is occurring while I am typing this, and the ceasefire has been all words and no action, with Russian forces continuing to roll in to Tbilisi. Talk continues to flow from the United States, from the White House, from the campaign of Senator John McCain, and from the campaign of Senator Barack Obama. That is all it has been, and, more importantly, all it can be.
Talk once worked.
Our talking does not matter anymore.
Sure, the United States is the world’s most powerful superpower. Sure, the United States has the most firepower. Sure, the United States still has a nuclear arsenal.
Our strength though was once in the ability to make our words matter.
President George W. Bush has made sure though that those words simply have little meaning anymore. Throughout the 1990s, the world turned to the United States as a world leader, as someone to be trusted to do the right thing by those in need of aid. Sometimes it failed, but often it worked. Beyond force, though, our words carried weight then, with the greater fear being what might be behind those words. Simply talking could be enough to convince those that we needed to back down to simply do so.
Our soft power was never greater than on September 12, 2001. The world rallied to the side of the United States. The world’s melting pot, everyone knew someone in New York, with unfortunately too many knowing ones at the World Trade Center, and as we wept, the world wept. As we responded, the world responded.
Now, after Iraq, Guantanamo, and a foreign policy designed around belligerence rather than accommodation, few seem to care what we have to say anymore. Russia has simply told the United States to back off while they continue to what they want, where they want, within Georgia. Talks between Georgia and Russia have occurred, without the United States – it was France that brought them to the table.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, we threaten Iran over and over and over again, only to see them test fire missiles. Israel, according to a report that The Guardian featured on their front page earlier today only to later remove, not only is readying plans for a strike on Iran, and has gone so far as to ask for material assistance from the United States for such an invasion. The US has asked Israel to hold off, and has refused aid, but will that stop Israel? The US asking Iran to cease what they were doing did not work and asking Russia to cease is not working, so why should it work with Israel, or anyone else for that matter?
This is the problem when you cede moral high ground and act in a unitary manner – soft power erodes, and when you really need it, it is too late.
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