Forgetting poses peril

The News Virginian
Published: September 10, 2008

Among other things better known, philosopher George Santayana once declared: “Only the dead have seen the end of wars.” The admonition was a precise response to another slice of myopia from the rarely revered 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, who called World War I “a war to end all wars.” Like his reference to those who forget the past being doomed to repeat it, Santayana’s words endure even as his name remains obscure. They apply particularly today.
Flickering in the American memory are the horrors of Sept. 11. That is a tribute to the resilience of this country’s economy and spirit. Osama bin Laden’s band of extremist dupes killed thousands of people and felled the iconic twin towers, but the buildings were mere symbols rather than prosperity itself. Still, the fading cognizance of Sept. 11 is an indication of America’s own astigmatism rivaling Wilson’s. Enemies lurk, as events may be apt to remind us if our recollections do not.
Al-Qaida is unlikely to remain chief among our foes current and potential. Terrorists are on the precipice of defeat in Iraq, and America’s successes there provide cause for optimism that full victory can be achieved in Afghanistan where remnants of bin Laden’s fractured jihadist network carry on their losing fight. The attacks of 2001 demonstrated America’s vulnerability, but the surge has demonstrated anew her strength.
More complex is the remoter but rising threat posed by Russia, a familiar antagonist that the U.S. has naively considered vanquished. Having gathered desperately needed wealth with the systematic takeover of oil interests throughout its vast heartland, Russia flexed its imperialist bent in Georgia.
Only those willfully beguiled believe the Russian bear, having arisen in South Ossetia, will again fall silent. Vladmir Putin, a dictator thinly veiled, is determined to retrieve that which the Soviet Union lost, starting with power and starting with border states. The cold war has not returned, but the temperature has cooled.
Like Russia, China has meticulously stockpiled wealth, much of it from America, growing its economy by ceding carefully marked ground to capitalists while maintaining its totalitarian grip. China’s trade surplus hit a record $27.1 billion last month, up 21 percent from a year ago. U.S. officials comfort themselves with the notion that capitalism is nibbling inroads in China, a concept belied by the prolonged legacy of human rights abuses and the absence of liberty in Beijing and beyond.
Other rogues continue to prowl. In North Korea, Kim Jong Il is ailing but not his country’s robust buildup, evidenced by the recent discovery of another long-range missile base, this one on the west coast. Iran harbors its own nuclear aspirations along with a fervent hatred of the U.S.
These developments and those to come form the misty backdrop to the current presidential race, in which the uttering of banalities in reference to lipstick and pigs at this writing has taken hold of pundits’ attention.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, whose 15 minutes have given way to Sarah Palin’s, vows he’ll wield soft-spoken diplomacy as a big stick against foreign enemies. Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who admits to knowing little about the economy, knows something about foreign policy, in part the product of having served his country beyond the boundaries of Chicago in a capacity less negligible than community organizer or political aspirant.
On the anniversary of a grave day in American history, the contrasts between the candidates strike us as particularly vivid. Remembering those differences on election day might spare this country the doom of repeating that which we long to forget.