The Price of Arrogance
Since first taking office, members of the Bush administration have acted as if America’s long dominance in the world made them untouchable. They have repeatedly gone their own way, using diplomacy when it suited their purposes and ignoring the world when it didn’t. This collective arrogance is personified in the cocky smirk and swagger of the Decider, and the smug, matter-of-fact, false assertions of the Big Dick. What their parents failed to teach them, apparently, is that cockiness and arrogance ultimately lead to irrelevance.
And now the United States is reaping what Bush and Co. have sown. Because the administration’s arrogance blinded them to reality, our standing in the world has declined greatly in the past seven years. Our military is in a shambles, our economy is tanking, and a large portion of the world population hate us. We are weak and other countries know it. That’s why earlier this year Saudi King Abdullah twice refused the Decider’s appeals to increase oil production. It’s also a major reason why there’s been a role reversal between the US and China, who are now blasting the Bushies over America’s failed economic policies and blaming them for the current global economic problems. In the past, King Abdullah would have diplomatically ‘considered it’, and the Chinese would not have had a pedestal to stand on.
Obama may restore our credibility, but it will be a very long time before we regain the position we once held in the world, if we ever do.