Secretary Gates' fears of isolationism are overblown
Secretary Gates is worried:
'Aboard the Pentagon jet on his last foreign trip as secretary of defense, Robert Gates takes a moment to peer across the American horizonâ??and the view is dire: the U.S. is in danger of losing its supremacy on the global stage, he says.â??Iâ??ve spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower, and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position,â? he tells NEWSWEEK, seated in a windowless conference room aboard the Boeing E-4B. â??It didnâ??t have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. This is a different time.â?Â
A pause.
â??To tell you the truth, thatâ??s one of the many reasons itâ??s time for me to retire, because frankly I canâ??t imagine being part of a nation, part of a government â?¦ thatâ??s being forced to dramatically scale back our engagement with the rest of the world.â?Â
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I think Gates' fears are overblown.
Aside from the yawning disparity in military spending, who is talking about "scaling back our engagement" with the rest of the world? There are a few politicians expressing skepticism about bombing specific parts of the world, yes, and still others questioning the wisdom of deficit-financed nation building. But that does not equate to a growing unwillingness to "engage" with the world.