Yesterday, while reading letters to the editor in one of our local papers I read a letter from a David Schaberg that said in part that "American power was built on the trust and respect we once enjoyed in the world". Mr. Schaberg was, of course, complaining about the Bush Administration.

Well, I have news for that gentleman. No country's power was ever built on trust. A country's power is built on military or economic might and the fear that arises from that might. Fear generates respect.

The United States is not a permanent member of the United Nation's Security Council because the world trusts us. If that were the case Russia and China would not be permanent members as no one trusts them but almost everyone is afraid of them.

When Ronald Reagan was President the world feared us and therefore they followed our lead and pretended to like us. After President Clinton took office the world decided that there was no longer anything to fear and we became a paper tiger. World leaders loved President Clinton because they knew that they could control him. There was nothing to fear from our might because President Clinton was not about to use it, unless it was going to be used to please those leaders. Once President Bush took office the world saw that he might be willing to use our might. After 9/11 they cooperated with us in Afghanistan and many of them worked with us in Iraq.

Then, France worked against us and continued to deal with Hussein right up untill we invaded Iraq and we did nothing. Canada, Germany, Mexico and many other countries told us to go jump in a lake and we did nothing. Russia and China worked against us and we did nothing. Arab countries like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and others aided terrorists and we did nothing. Terrorists attacked Spain and the people of Spain decided that they were more afraid of the terrorists than they were of us so they elected a new government that promptly withdrew it's forces from Iraq and we did nothing. Then other countries started to withdraw their forces and we did nothing. The President of Venezuela called for the assassination of our President and we still buy their oil. Then far left Democrats and the 'Hollywood Elite' started talking about running from the war in Iraq while they and many other Americans screamed that we were to harsh on our enemies and many Americans listened to them. Charlie Sheen says that he thinks our own government might have been part of a conspiracy to blow up the world trade center and people still watch his television program.

The world has learned that even though we have money and might we do not have the will to follow through on our principles and actions. They can ignore or even work against us and we will still treat them as friends. They can threaten us and although we may threaten back we will do nothing unless the rest of the world approves of our actions. We don't do anything about North Korea because China, Russia and South Korea may be angered by our actions. We do nothing but talk about Iran because other Arab countries may get angry and cut off our oil. Syria allows terrorists to cross their border into Iraq and even though those terrorists kill American soldiers we do nothing to Syria because it may upset others in the world community.

The world doesn't like or trust Russia and China but they do fear and respect them. America is the most powerful country in the world but the world no longer fears us because they have come to realize that too many Americans value comfort over principles. They realize that when a strong and principled leader like President Bush comes along we will eventually get rid of him and his followers rather than make the sacrifices needed to follow through on what we start. They also realize that we have short memories and will treat our enemies of today as friends tomorrow. All our enemies have to do is wait us out.

Americans need to be less worried about being trusted, about being liked and about comfort and quick results. We need to be more worried about being feared and about staying the course no matter what and how long it takes.

David G. Hallstrom, Sr.
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