By Bijan R. Kian and JoEllen Chatham
We live in an angry world as we prepare to elect the next president of the United States. Speaking before a Joint Session of Congress on September 11, 1990, a decade before the attack on freedom and democracy in New York City, President George H. W. Bush expressed his vision for the future. "We have before us," he said, "the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order; a world where the rule of law, not the rule of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations." He placed his confidence in a credible United Nations to bring about this rule of law. The word "order" can hardly be applied to the world we see today. Describing the United Nations as "credible" requires a stretch of the imagination and governing the conduct of nations has proven to be vastly unsuccessful.
The law of the jungle is the governing principle of non-state actors who continue to murder innocent people from Medina in Saudi Arabia to Paris, Istanbul, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando and beyond. Revolutionary guardsmen of the Islamic Republic of Iran capture and detain sailors of the greatest navy in the world and display them on their knees with their hands behinds their heads. The North Korean leader threatens to level New York City with his missiles. Russia and China pose expansionist threats and serious challenges to global security.
At home, our law enforcement officers are massacred on the streets while tension escalates between communities and nervous police officers as racial divide expands. Our attorney general encourages protestors "not to be discouraged." Cities like Chicago have turned into war zones. All this, due to lack of leadership by this administration.
On law and order, our former Secretary of State sends classified information through a private server kept in the basement of her house (safe, she said, because it was guarded by the Secret Service). Our FBI Director describes her behavior as "extremely careless," but then acts as judge and jury by recommending no prosecution and no referral to other authorities. His boss, our Attorney General "accepts" his recommendation without further investigation.
On the economy, ninety-four million able-bodied Americans are not working and the median income of those who are working continues a downward slide. Not a stellar record for law and order and a grim picture for the economy.
As we face this crazy and increasingly dangerous world, America is divided. Despite the soothing lullaby of the Obama White House, our country is in serious decline. At this critical time in our history, we must address two key questions: How did we get here and what can we do to restore America's credibility both at home and abroad? Unlike the current administration which is losing the war on terrorism because it refuses to identify and name the enemy, we recognize that America cannot solve its leadership and credibility issues unless it first identifies how we got here.
We got here in large part because we forgot how to lead. In the not-too-distant past, the President of The United States was considered to be the leader of the free world. We were respected by our friends and could be counted on as a reliable ally in times of crisis.
We got here partly because we started wars with the idea of "shock and awe" instead of victory. We got here because we chose to "lead from behind." We drew red lines that faded as soon as they were crossed. We got here because we were careless: we ignored Iranian mischief in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa and Central America and its export of the Islamic Revolution. The supposed "Russia reset" was an abject failure and Libya is in chaos. We got here by subscribing to a mode of dishonest conduct we amicably call "political correctness." We say one thing and do something else.
Some will claim we got here because the world changed, that America is not the superpower it once was, and we have to adjust to this reality. What is missing in this misguided claim is that America's reaction to the changing world has helped bring about the state in which the world now finds itself. We applied our American lens to a world we did not understand. That world is a world of ideas, a world of ideologies.
Military force is necessary for national defense and security. It is not enough in the Age of Rage. We can kill or capture terrorists but we cannot shoot, kill, or capture violent or extremist ideologies. We can win only by augmenting physical force with a superior ideology - one that values life over death, freedom over repression, prosperity over poverty and brotherhood over hatred and bigotry. We must stop apologizing for who we are and what we believe.
Our ideology has resulted in the greatest good for the greatest number of people and more freedom and prosperity than any other system in the history of the world.
After eight years of apologizing, "leading from behind" and empty promises of "hope and change," America's leadership and credibility in the world can only be restored by adhering to our values - vocally and publicly, without shame or hesitation. Devising and executing strategies for victory in this war of ideologies require creativity, imagination, boldness and commitment to the principles that made America great.
During her tenure as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to use our most potent weapon - the ideology of freedom - against the greatest enemy our nation has faced. The poverty of intellect, lack of imagination and "extreme carelessness" have brought us to where we are. We cannot continue down the path of careless appeasement, weakness and self-deception.
President Ronald Reagan's slogan for his first presidential campaign was "Make America Great Again." His belief in America and its enduring values never wavered. He restored America's military might under the banner of "peace through strength," but also unabashedly promoted the ideology of freedom. He said "Nyet" to the Russians and the Soviet empire collapsed. The era of the Cold War ended.
This new era, the Age of Rage, will end only when the ideology of freedom triumphs over the ideology of terror. Reagan enlisted ideals and words in the battle against communism and put America back on the path to greatness. Our next president needs to follow this example, to Make America Great Again by reasserting commitment to our principles and helping to spread peace and prosperity throughout the world.
The Honorable Bijan R. Kian is a twice Senate confirmed, former senior Administration official who worked directly under two Presidents of the United States from both major political parties 2006-2011.
Dr. JoEllen Chatham is the First Vice Chair Emeritus of the Republican Party in Orange County California and former professor of political science at West Los Angeles College.