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By Root 1252 0

Africa—many of whom were bribed or cajoled into the coalition. And while the governments of Central Europe supported Washington, its people opposed it in almost the same numbers as in old Europe. Missing this distinction, Washington misunderstood Turkey, a long-standing and faithful ally that had become much more democratic over the 1990s. The government wanted to back the United States, but more than 90 percent of the Turkish people opposed it. The result, after a close parliamentary vote, was that Turkey could not support the United States—which meant the two-front war against Saddam became a one-front war, with serious drawbacks. At the start of the war, the United States had the support of a majority of the people in only one country in the world, Israel. And while one might laud Tony Blair for his loyalty, one cannot expect most democratic politicians to ignore the wishes of vast majorities of their people.

Nationalism in a unipolar world can often become anti-American. How do you show that you are a staunch Brazilian, Chinese, or Russian patriot? By standing up to Mr. Big. In the 1970s, many of Indira Gandhi’s domestic policies were unpopular. Standing up to America, however, would always get a cheer on the campaign trail. Why? India was then as now fascinated by America and the American dream. But it was a sign of strength and courage that Mrs. Gandhi could assert herself against the hegemon. Americans complain that this is irrational, and that the country is unfairly turned into a punching bag. They are right. But get over it. There are many, many advantages to being a superpower. It has some costs as well. Those costs can be easily lowered by attentive diplomacy.

“It is better to be feared than loved,” Machiavelli wrote. It is a motto that Dick Cheney took to heart. In a 2007 speech, he quoted Bernard Lewis to the effect that, during the Cold War, Middle Eastern dictators learned that they should fear the Soviet Union but not America. Machiavelli and Cheney are wrong. Yes, the Soviet Union was feared by its allies, while the United States was loved, or at least liked. Look who’s still around. It is odd and unsettling that Vice President Cheney should cite enviously the thuggish and failed strategies of a totalitarian dictatorship. America has transformed the world with its power but also with its ideals. When China’s pro-democracy protesters gathered in Tiananmen Square, they built a makeshift figure that suggested the Statue of Liberty, not an F-16. America’s image may not be as benign as Americans think, but it is, in the end, better than the alternatives. That is what has made its immense power tolerable to the world for so long.

Fear and Loathing

Before it can implement any of these specific strategies, however, the United States must make a much broader adjustment. It needs to stop cowering in fear. It is fear that has created a climate of paranoia and panic in the United States and fear that has enabled our strategic missteps. Having spooked ourselves into believing that we have no option but to act fast and alone, preemptively and unilaterally, we have managed to destroy decades of international goodwill, alienate allies, and embolden enemies, while solving few of the major international problems we face. To recover its place in the world, America first has to recover its confidence.

By almost all objective measures, the United States is in a blessed position today. It faces problems, crises, and resistance, but compared with any of the massive threats of the past—Nazi Germany, Stalin’s aggression, nuclear war—the circumstances are favorable, and the world is moving our way. In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt diagnosed the real danger for the United States. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he said. “Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” And he was arguing against fear when America’s economic and political system was near collapse, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed, and when fascism was on the march around the world. Somehow we have managed to spook ourselves in a