The case for David.

• Author: Howell, Llewellyn D
• Position: WORLD WATCHER; U.S foreign policy

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION PURSUES the "Goliath" agenda without restraint. It is changing the nature of the U.S. from a nation that aspires to be evenly prosperous, from top to bottom, to one where the elite have far more money than they need and the poor increasingly are short on medical care.

The "trickle down" theory is called upon to cover the acts of Congress, without the slightest evidence that any of it actually works. Facts are hidden from the public and even members of the legislature on the grounds that they are lost or forbidden on the basis of national security. "Truthiness" is the best we can get from our government: whatever they say is therefore the truth, the facts be damned and they're all classified anyway.

Our government has chosen the warrior path in international politics, utilizing threat first, battle second, negotiations last. The face of America is its body-armored soldier. The Peace Corps is a receding memory. Our country has fallen on desperate times. It is being led in to the valley of death by its own sometimes-elected leaders. As the Republican-led government pursues national security before Social Security, we alienate allies and friends and exacerbate already caustic relations with enemies.

Michael Mandelbaum recently published his argument for U.S. global power in The Case for Goliath. He posits an America acting as a global policeman, bringing political and economic security to the world. He maintains that this is not just for the benefits of the American empire but is a matter of systemic security and development. His contention is that the international system is inherently hierarchical, and there is no substitute for the U.S. at the top of that hierarchy. There is no role for cooperative management at the global level.

Mandelbaum's case for Goliath is well put. It contains, however, a fatal flaw: Mandelbaum has presented a state-centric scenario as the only possibility for order in the system. He shifts from the central Goliath-David analogy to a solar system configuration, with the U.S. playing the sun. The only other players are the individual planets. The problem with the solar system is that it has no human intention and deviation, social system, or morality. Gravity and centrifugal force have no learning ability, angst, terror, or hunger to motivate planets to change position, crash into the sun, or break away. There are no suicide bombers in the solar system.

Let's imagine that David is not a country...