Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993 TAG: 9311040248
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Add to the list a renewed yearning for isolationism.
A poll by Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press indicates almost three-fourths of Americans are unhappy with the way things are going in this country, and even more - 81 percent - don't like what's happening in the rest of the world.
Yet only 13 percent want President Clinton to concentrate on foreign policy, while 76 percent want him to concentrate on problems here at home.
Understandable. The collapse of communism has given the country the sense that, the enemy vanquished, it can take a breather and tend to its own business.
Not true.
For trends and events in the world f+iareo America's business, tempting though it may be to pretend otherwise. There is not a single enemy out there, as there was during wartime or the Cold War. But there are other kinds of enemies aplenty - enemies of peace and of democracy, ideological opponents and economic foes - and to ignore either the opportunities or the challenges abroad would be detrimental to the nation's health.
International trade. Instantaneous global communications. Nuclear proliferation. Economic despair and its offspring, massive migration. These are not just foreign affairs; they are domestic issues as well. All will penetrate any economic, political or psychological barriers we may try to erect along our borders.
Yes, it's past time that long-neglected domestic imperatives such as universal health care are given the attention they demand. But it's also no time to forget that you cannot cloister the country from the rest of the world. We couldn't earlier in this century, and we've never been more interconnected with the rest of the globe than we are today.
You cannot have a president who concentrates on domestic issues or foreign policy. The nation must have one who will provide strong leadership in both areas - who can recognize how they flow together.
The Times Mirror poll suggests Americans would like to reject their role as a superpower. That would leave the world with none. No leader. And into that void will step ... what?
by CNB