Final draft essay 2

[Lily]

Prof. O'Connel

Good evening, sir! i don't know if i am right.



FINAL DRAFT ESSAY 2
Andrew Bacevich’s, 2009 Limits of Power correctly claimed that
America faces profound three crises now days: profligacy and culture,
political and economic crisis.
The economy that is messed up because of Americans always want more
no matter what the cost is and makes it remarkable disarray and can no
longer fixed but by relying on expansion abroad which led to severe
problems, including cultural standing in the world, the financial
meltdown and environmental problems. As Bascevich quoted in his book,
“ American hungered for more, an obsession that filled him with
anxiety, fear and keeps his mind in ceaseless trepidation”. (p 17).
American’s still looking aboard, seeking to extend to reach of US
power of pursuing “fresh gratifications” expressed itself into an urge
to expand, territorially and commercially.” On the other hand, Thomas
Omestad, (2008), in his article “Is America Really on the Decline”
correctly claims that the financial problem in America gave shock to
all countries. Furthermore, he said, “the rumblings about America’s
decline are understandable. But Americans are worried that the United
States has already lost leverage for achieving its aims overseas as
the superpower of the world financial system. Bacevich is correctly
proposes two choices of change: change the way we live, or change the
way they live. It’s now time that we have to change the way we live
beyond our means. Paul Kennedy (1988) pointed out in his work, The
Rise and fall of the Great Powers, that if America’s power position
has changed, so must American attitudes. As Bacevich says, as quoted
by Omestad, “We shall disenthrall ourselves from the idea that the
well-being and security of the United States can only be attained by
seeking to maintain primacy.” In modifying the way they live, the
Bush administration looked to America’s armed forces as its preferred
agent of change (p.59) but the United States had a shortage of
soldiers because of lacked of funds. So, how could they send
soldiers? The longer the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the more costly
they became. To sustain its operations, the US command in Baghdad was
spending $3 billion per week, and for 1 year US will spent $500
billion and will reach up 'at the amount of $2 trillion. That cost lot
of money. This indicates that America ‘s habit of profligacy had
become entrenched. Congress responded to budget imbalances not by
trimming spending or increasing revenues but by quietly and repeatedly
raising the debt ceiling – by $3,015 trillion between 2002 and 2006.
Future generations could figure out how to pay the bills. (p.65) and
its unfair for the future generations for the to suffer it.
In relation to the book of Oscar Wilde, 1981, Dorian Gray, the main
character represents profligacy where he spent all his money in doing
nothing good for himself, enjoying his life to the fullest.. Like the
Americans they spent a lot of money in helping other countries without
thinking what will happen to us in the future. Bacevich pointed out
our desire to buy bigger things, better things and ever more things,
is bringing our country into a ruin. As a result, sustaining our
pursuit of life, liberty and happiness are home inquires increasingly
that we are looking beyond our borders.
Bacevich argued that the rise of the imperial presidency and the
demise of the Congress as a coequal branch of government has produced
periodic bouts of hand wringing (p71). Imperial presidency would not
exist without the Congress that cede authority to Executive branch,
especially on matters of national security. While the main function
of the Congress is to ensure the reelection of its members, best
achieved by shameless gerrymandering, dolling out prodigious amounts
of political pork, and seeing to the protection of certain vested
interests? Regardless of power, the people in charge don’t know what
they are doing, that’s why we have dysfunctional system of society.
The people who run the government are incompetent and transformed by
an imperial presidency in a democratic form only. The nations
involvement in an endless wars that driven by a deep infatuation with
military power; and use this to solve problems today. Thomas
Donnelly, 2008, in his article “The Limits of American Power and Civil-
Military Relations argued that the Bush Administration has made unwise
choices, but they are undeniably choices that have been validated by
the American political process. Donnelly quoted Bacevich argued that
the course of of events since the 2006 election has disregarded the
democratic process, but that’s not right, either. Furthermore,
democrats victories in 2006 elections gave them a congressional
majority, but not a large enough majority to override the
Constitutions preassumptions in favor of the commander in chief.
Strongly agree that when 9/11 happened, since than American’s demand
have become more insistent. It only became more of itself. The
attacked on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Washington’s
resolve that nothing interferes with the individual American’s pursuit
of life, liberty and happiness only hardened. President Bush in his
second inaugural that the “survival of liberty in our land
increasingly depends on the success of liberty in the other lands”.
(p69) Strongly disagree with this statement that we Americans can
survive of liberty by not depending to other nations. We have all the
resources to make our nations survive with the crisis that we are
facing today. There’s nothing wrong to help other nations, so the
government should look first how to solve our problems before helping
other nations. It’s now time that the government should stop
competing with other nations regarding power. American power has
limitations and inadequate to the ambitions to which hubris and
sanctimony have given rise. In this statement “Americans has
freedom today than ever before, with more citizens than ever before
enjoying unencumbered access to the promise of American life”. I
hope that government will look into. The collective capacity of
our domestic political economy to satisfy those appetites has not kept
the pace with demand. As a result, sustaining our pursuit of life,
liberty, and happiness at home requires increasingly that American
look beyond our borders. Whether the issue at hand is oil, credit, or
the availability of cheap consumer goods, we expect the world to
accommodate the American way of life.
With the above mentioned, Americans need to reassert to control their
own destiny, by not depending to other nations, and abandoning their
“superpower” thinking. All nations are equal and have their
capabilities to improve their way of life. The combination of economic
and culture, politics and military crisis summons the government
officials to reexamine exactly the three problems that America facing
today.

Resources:

Bacevich, Andrew J. 2008. The Limits of Power: The End of American
Exceptonalism.
New York: Metropolitan Books.
Wilde, Oscar. 1981. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: University
Press
Omestad, Thomas, 2008. “Is America Really on the Decline”. US News
Donnelly, Thomas, 2008. The Limits of American Power and Civil-
Military Relations.
Small Wars of Journal