The Magic is Over

According to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, "...the magic is over," for the US. In an extensive interview with International Herald Tribune writer Alison Smale the founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) turned diplomat allows that the next president of the United States will have a daunting task ahead. He offers the dismal benediction that: "It will never be as it was before." Regrettably, I am forced to agree.

As a frequent overseas traveler, I am concerned about our country's international reputation. George Bush entered office with a clear disdain for foreign policy and nation building. So it comes as no surprise that his now obligatory focus on foreign affairs is myopic, ego-centric and belligerent. It is shocking that his administration's attempts at nation building have been so costly and incompetent - creating more problems than before his intervention. What has come as an additional surprise is the amount of blood he is willing to shed, the amount of our national budget he is prepared to squander, and the incredible level of incompetence and corruption he will abide in his mid-guided adventures. Put quite simply, we are ruined. Bankrupt. The price of our government's folly is staggering and ongoing. Our grand-children may not dig themselves out of this hole.

The sad truth is that George Bush is going to spend his last months in office systematically making things worse on every front. You can take that to the bank. He's determined to see his twisted vision through. Neither Congress nor the bureaucracy seems able to stop him. An unstoppable, downward trajectory that will surely take him and his cronies to the darkest place in recent history. It is an enormous irony that in the face of such deeds, Americans still obsess about the victimless-crime of Eliot Spitzer, the ill-advised but consenting dalliance of Bill Clinton and the current mental condition of Brittany Spears.