Why Three Presidents Failed
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Zbigniew Brzezinski is presenting a brilliant analysis why three presidents, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II failed to be great leaders. This is not because they were not intelligent enough or did not have enough power but because they lacked the right vision. Curiously the president with a clearest vision, Bush II, performed according to the detailed analysis presented in the book the worst. It is ascribed to Bush II adopting the wrong vision, the Neocon doctrine, described in detail in the book. What is the right vision according to Brzezinski? The power of the USA was at its peak under the presidencies of Bush I and Clinton and rapidly declined during Bush II. The power of the first two presidents was not used the way it could have been used. The right vision according to Brzezinski is that the USA could and should have used its power, prestige and influence to align and combine its power with Western Europe and expand it to include Russia which was possible after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This combined power should have been used to arrive at positive cooperation with the emerging nations of Asia, solve the Israel Palestine problem, to reduce the spreading of nuclear arms and to reduce poverty in poor nations. When this had been accomplished there would not have been, nuclear arms proliferation, a problem with Iran and not a 9/11 event.
This would have required that the US would have accepted to share more sovereignty with Europe first and later with other nations, to accept that international laws also had to be accepted by the USA. The USA cannot be above laws that apply to all nations. The USA could have played a leading role in shaping those laws.
Second chance refers to the possibility that the next President might still be able to resurrect American positive influence in the world, but that it is very late, it is the last chance.
The most realistic and interesting account I have read about what the goals of the USA should be.
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