Hardly had I clicked to publish my last post when I read David Ignatius's column on "the debate over U.S. strength," which takes a new book by Zbigniew Brzezinski, "Strategic Vision," as a springboard for a discussion of two competing conceptual frameworks for the future exercise of U.S. power in the world. Ignatius, paraphrasing Brzezinski, wrote this paragraph:
'A wake-up line in Brzezinski’s book is that there are “alarming similarities” between America today and the Soviet Union just before its fall, including a “gridlocked governmental system incapable of enacting serious policy revisions,” a back-breaking military budget and a failing “decade-long attempt to conquer Afghanistan.”'
Quite an arresting statement, considering my own opinion a couple of hours ago that I didn't think the U.S. was about to break apart! Neither does Brzezinski, really, but he does use this comparison to awaken us to the need to think seriously about what kind of defense establishment we need, and how we should use it.
On this broader issue, Ignatius's column is well worth reading, as is, I suspect, Brzezinski's book. (The latter can be ordered directly from amazon.com by clicking the icon in the right-hand margin.)
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