America, right or wrong

Re “Downsizing our dominance,” Opinion, Feb. 3

Fred Kaplan’s Op-Ed article is a classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is precisely because of such thoughts that the U.S. does not have the clout and stature that it should have in the world. Certainly the United States is the world’s most dominant country today in every conceivable way. But our dominance is benign rather than destructive. Yet, through self-doubt and undermining like Kaplan’s, we are our own worst enemy and invite and tolerate the true transgressions on humanity by petty dictators or regimes.

What is best for the U.S. is best for the world. We do the things that are right (yes, pun intended), and neither ignorance nor misguided logic like Kaplan’s will change that.

John Corral

Tustin

Finally someone is brave and smart enough to actually analyze what is taking place in the United States and its place in the world. I disagree on two points, however, the first being that U.S. influence started to decline with the fall of the Soviet Union. It actually started in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine. For far too long, many other countries went along with this, provided that it was not affecting them. President Bush pushed that envelope way too far, and it has now come back to haunt us.

The other point: There are no good solutions to the Iraq war. There is one that is staring us in the face that we refuse to accept. The war is lost; we need to acknowledge that and just get out -- immediately. That is what I learned as a kid at school when I lost the fight: capitulate and withdraw. Trying to make a loss into some sort of win is dumb.

Jack Waddington

Santa Monica

Kaplan seems to want the impossible: a loved America that all nations fear. He states that Turkey did not let U.S. troops invade Iraq from the north, and nothing happened; that Germany voted with France, and nothing happened. For America’s influence to be what Kaplan envisions, what should have happened?

Contrary to his somewhat disjointed assumptions, maybe the fact that nothing happened is testimony that the United States is mature and responsible in maintaining its alliances. As far as nothing happening to our wayward allies, the governments of Germany and France have been replaced with pro-American administrations, and Turkey is on its own with the Kurdish separatist movement.

Perhaps Kaplan longs for the good old days of American supreme power -- as when France pulled out of NATO and our vice president was being pelted with eggs in South America. Back then, as a young traveler in Europe, I was advised to say I was Canadian to avoid hostility. Rejecting that advice caused some uncomfortable moments in parts of France. We’ve never been universally loved -- or feared.

Jake Clark

Redondo Beach