US leads best by example not military force


Regarding “After a mere 25 years, the triumph of the West is over” (Dec. 4): Charles Krauthammer is once again rewriting history to fit his view of the world. Charlie is interpreting the end of the Cold War as a period where the rest of the world bowed to the USA and loved us. I am sorry Charlie, that never happened. When the USSR collapsed and the subject countries started to establish their own forms of government, some chose Western-style democracies and other chose various form of dictatorships.

Greater Cincinnatians stand divided on our country's future this Independence Day.

Charlie wants the USA to use its military power to dominate and lead the rest of the world. I contend that our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan should prove that despite spending more on our military than the next 12 largest countries combined, we cannot dominate the rest of the world. We do best when we lead by good example. Starting the war in Iraq was not a good example. We went into Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden, when we killed him in Pakistan, we should have declared that we had achieve our principle objective in Afghanistan and pulled our troops out. We cannot make Sharia law-based countries into Western-style democracies. We will go bankrupt if we keep spending $600-plus billion each year trying to do so. We need to work with like-minded countries to destroy ISIS. So let’s quit nation building and concentrate our limited resources on clear limited objectives.

Bob Letourneau, West Chester Township