Is our children lost their mojo?

David Seaton's News Links
A major part of US charisma has always been its cheerful air of "can do" competence. With Iraq, this has gone with the wind.

Today's American narrative would have Neal Armstrong step out of the Apollo and fall flat on his face. Henry Ford would have to recall all the Model Ts. Cole Porter would write like Bush speaks... You catch my drift. I find this directly attacks my self-image as an American... I resent it like hell.

This is not only a loss for the United States, it is a loss for the world similar to a child losing its belief in Santa Claus. For the rest of your life there is what Sartre would call "a Santa Claus shaped hole" in your life. The world won't miss American imperialism, but it will sure miss the cheerful, confident and competent, "can do", American. I miss me already. DS

Applebaum: Would You Follow the Country That Bungled Iraq? - Washington Post
Abstract: Why don't they like us as much as they used to? "They" in this latter question are our very, very closest allies. By this I don't mean France, or even Canada,(...) No, the more interesting question is why support for American leadership has declined among our traditional friends: Britain, Poland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands. And it has declined -- drastically. Since 2002, according to the latest German Marshall Fund " transatlantic trends" survey, support for "U.S. leadership in world affairs" -- that's whether they want to follow our political lead, not whether they think we're nice -- has plunged by 30 percentage points in Germany, 26 points in Italy, 24 points in Poland, 23 points in the Netherlands and 22 points in Britain. More generally, support for U.S. leadership, which was at 64 percent across Europe in 2002, is now at 36 percent (though that figure includes the touchier countries).(...) Europeans worry about global warming than Americans, but the difference (85 percent vs. 70 percent) is not as great as one might think. And we all worry about everything else -- international terrorism, a nuclear Iran, global epidemics -- in almost equal measure. This last point strikes me as most interesting: For in fact, it indicates that what our closest friends really dislike is not our traditional pushiness, our violent movies or even our current president (though they don't like him much) but our incompetence. A full third blame the perceived decline of the transatlantic alliance on the "mismanagement of Iraq." Not the invasion of Iraq, the "mismanagement" of Iraq. Which makes sense: If you're really worried about Iran, do you want to put your faith in the United States, the country that bungled Iraq? If you really care about Islamic fundamentalism, do you want to be led by the country that, distracted by Iraq, failed to predict the return of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan?(...) Countries that would once have supported American foreign policy on principle, simply out of solidarity or friendship, will now have to be cajoled, or paid, to join us. Count that -- along with the lives of soldiers and civilians, the dollars and equipment -- as another cost of the war. No one wants to be on the losing team. READ IT ALL