http://lobelog.com/a-view-from-the-past-on-americas-global-mission/#more-32974

A View from the Past on America’s Global Mission

by Peter Jenkins
I have just read for the first time President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation. I hope that readers who are familiar with the wisdom it contains will appreciate the reminders that follow, and that others will be pleased to discover that wisdom.
Mostly I shall leave readers to reflect for themselves on the contrast between the outlook on the world that President Eisenhower espoused and the outlook that the current crop of presidential candidates appears to espouse. I hope I may be forgiven, though, for interjecting a few reflection-prompts from a foreign (European) perspective.

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Is there still a consensus in the United States on using US power—still unmatched—in the interests of world peace and for human betterment? Is there recognition that the rest of the world welcomes US leadership when it is exercised for the betterment of all, but not when it is exercised for the advantage of minority interests? Would President Eisenhower have approved of recent interventions—covert and overt—in the internal affairs of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the Ukraine, as being in the interests of world peace?http://lobelog.com/a-view-from-the-past-on-americas-global-mission/#more-32974