The Price Of Greatness

Robert Gates delivered a long address yesterday as part of the Landon Lecture Series on Public Issues at Kansas State University. It is a rather longish speech but well worth taking the time to read. Gates details the history of America's response to the threats of the Cold War, the short-sighted dismantling of many of our capabilities after the fall of the Soviet Union and his vision of what America will need going forward. It really is a brilliant speech. He speaks of the need for more civilian expertise to assist the military in stabilizing problem spots. The exercise of so-called soft power as a vital component of American policy.

For example, in Afghanistan the military has recently brought in professional anthropologists as advisors. The New York Times reported on the work of one of them, who said, "I'm frequently accused of militarizing anthropology. But we're really anthropologizing the military."

And it is having a very real impact. The same story told of a village that had just been cleared of the Taliban. The anthropologist pointed out to the military officers that there were more widows than usual, and that the sons would feel compelled to take care of them - possibly by joining the insurgency, where many of the fighters are paid. So American officers began a job training program for the widows.

Similarly, our land-grant universities have provided valuable expertise on agricultural and other issues. Texas A&M has had faculty on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2003. And Kansas State is lending its expertise to help revitalize universities in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, and working to improve the agricultural sector and veterinary care across Afghanistan. These efforts do not go unnoticed by either Afghan citizens or our men and women in uniform.

I have been heartened by the works of individuals and groups like these. But I am concerned that we need even more civilians involved in the effort and that our efforts must be better integrated.

And I remain concerned that we have yet to create any permanent capability or institutions to rapidly create and deploy these kinds of skills in the future. The examples I mentioned have, by and large, been created ad hoc - on the fly in a climate of crisis. As a nation, we need to figure out how to institutionalize programs and relationships such as these. And we need to find more untapped resources - places where it's not necessarily how much you spend, but how you spend it.

But one passage really caught my eye. This explains - perfectly - why people like Ned Lamont and the far left are completely wrong in their new-old "realism" and neo-isolationism.

A last point. Repeatedly over the last century Americans averted their eyes in the belief that remote events elsewhere in the world need not engage this country. How could an assassination of an Austrian archduke in unknown Bosnia-Herzegovina effect us? Or the annexation of a little patch of ground called Sudetenland? Or a French defeat at a place called Dien Bien Phu? Or the return of an obscure cleric to Tehran? Or the radicalization of an Arab construction tycoon's son?

What seems to work best in world affairs, historian Donald Kagan wrote in his book On the Origins of War, "Is the possession by those states who wish to preserve the peace of the preponderant power and of the will to accept the burdens and responsibilities required to achieve that purpose."

In an address at Harvard in 1943, Winston Churchill said, "The price of greatness is responsibility . . . The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility." And, in a speech at Princeton in 1947, Secretary of State and retired Army general George Marshall told the students: "The development of a sense of responsibility for world order and security, the development of a sense of overwhelming importance of this country's acts, and failures to act, in relation to world order and security - these, in my opinion, are great musts for your generation."

Our country has now for many decades taken upon itself great burdens and great responsibilities - all in an effort to defeat despotism in its many forms or to preserve the peace so that other nations, and other peoples, could pursue their dreams. For many decades, the tender shoots of freedom all around the world have been nourished with American blood. Today, across the globe, there are more people than ever seeking economic and political freedom - seeking hope even as oppressive regimes and mass murderers sow chaos in their midst - seeking always to shake free from the bonds of tyranny.

The price of greatness is responsibility… Those words should be engraved in the heart of every American. Every time the United States has attempted to avert our collective eyes, the cost has been greater when we were finally forced to look. Every time.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

UPDATE: DefenseLink also has the speech up.

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  By martian, Wednesday, 28 November , 2007 @ 2:11 pm

  And Peter Parker’s (Spiderman) Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” I don’t point this out to trivialize, in any way, what Robert Gates said in his speech, or what Gaius said about the speech. Rather I point this out to show that some principles are so basic and so unalterably true that even a comic book character can state them and sound profound in doing so.

  Further, I want to agree strongly with Gaius when he says, “Every time the United States has attempted to avert our collective eyes, the cost has been greater when we were finally forced to look. Every time.” The people of the United States have paid a heavy price over and over again for the tendency towards isolationism that has been engendered by our ocean buffers. Time and time again we have made the same mistakes. This has resulted in WWI, WWII and ultimately in 9/11. We cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes with the same isolationist attitudes. Nor can we afford to shirk our responsibilities.

  We have major responsibilities to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq - we invaded their countries. We brought down their governments to accomplish our goals. No matter how strongly justified we were in doing so, this leaves us with a responsibility to the people of those countries. That responsibility is to stick with the job and see it through to the end - and it only ends when both of those countries have stable governments and safe streets for their citizens to live, work, and play on. To advocate anything less (yes, I mean YOU, Liberals) is the worst form of dereliction of responsibility!

Other Links to this Post

1. Responsibility: The Price of Greatness « The Van Der Galiën Gazette — Wednesday, 28 November , 2007 @ 3:19 am

2. PoliGazette » Responsibility: The Price of Greatness — Thursday, 29 November , 2007 @ 2:26 pm