Vehicle for change

Whoever occupies the White House in 2009 must use the bitter, brutal and humiliating lessons of Iraq as a vehicle for change. This country cannot continue to expend its human and monetary resources to rescue countries that have little or no interest in democracy. No one in Vietnam or Iraq asked for our help, yet we mounted invasions on spurious pretexts and have had, and are getting, our noses rubbed in the dirt. The direct result of America's archaic foreign policies is an ongoing oil crisis, a weakening dollar and an economy that depends on foreign investors. All of the foregoing is a prescription for disaster and urgent remedial action must be our course. I urge the formation of a commission on the order of the Iraq Study Group. America can no longer ignore its own problems and ride to the rescue of those countries whose citizens won't try to help themselves. We are on the cusp of a disaster so awesome that it could produce permanent economic and political chaos if we fail to act. The alternative is political orthodoxy and the erosion and eventual loss of our freedoms. Ephraim Levin, Philadelphia - Courier Post, January 16, 2007