[NormsRevenge]

"Ultimately this is a battle that will be won by ideas, not bullets. Just like the Cold War, we will prevail when the world chooses the opportunities we defend over the despair offered by our enemies."

--

Uh, OK.

I guess we as a nation should have just curled up in a fetal ball and wished away our attackers with pleasant thoughts.

It may make one pause and wonder if it would have been better to just let Germany and Japan have their ways with the rest of a world that doesn't appreciate freedom and liberty and prefers tyranny and treachery.

Oh well.

[NormsRevenge]

CSIS Commission on Smart Power
http://www.csis.org/smartpower/

America must revitalize its ability to inspire and persuade rather than merely rely upon its military might. Despite the predominance of U.S. hard power, there are limits to its effectiveness in addressing the main foreign policy challenges facing America today. America’s standing in the world is diminished, and although there have been discrete “soft power” successes – most notably the progress against HIV/AIDS and malaria, and the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation - many of the traditional instruments of soft power, such as public engagement and diplomacy, have been neglected and fallen into disrepair.

In addition, there remains a lack of strategic vision for how to integrate soft and hard power into “smart power” to address current and future challenges. The next year offers a unique opportunity for the United States to engage in a national dialogue on the best way to draw to its side the support of friends and allies in the pursuit of its national security interests.

[Names Ash Housewares]

all time low?

Yeah, when the start refusing to take our money, get back to me.

[acapesket]

Moonbats trying to influence Voting Day.

What else is new?

[SuziQ]

20-member think-tank commissioned by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said, citing half a dozen opinion polls from around the world.

Isn't the CSIS affiliated with the Dems?

[Perdogg]

Abu Grahib?? Did Alan Combs write that?

This is just pure BS. We are kicking al qaeda’s ass around the world without the help of the CSIS.

[rintense]

Just in time for the release of the movie, Lions for Lambs, and to hear Robert Redford utterly trash the United States WoT on Larry King tonight.

[NormsRevenge]

I should qualify my statement..

It may make one pause and wonder if it would have been better to just let Germany and Japan have their ways with the rest of a world that doesn’t appreciate freedom and liberty and prefers tyranny and treachery.

—

Choosing Isolationism versus Engagement, building a Fortress America and staying out of foreign entanglements may have been a more viable path to have taken in the short-term, but in the long term, it would only be a matter of time before those and other enemies would come to our shores... and have.

No amount of alliance building was going to stop certain events from happening and from the events to come.

[ClaudiusI]

Reputation is only what others think of you.
Character is what you are in the dark.

[pissant]

Huckster:

In his speech, Huckabee said the United States has a self-
important image on the world stage. “Our prestige in the world has been marred, not because we are a superpower, but by the manner in which we handle our power. (Anything) we can do to encourage our neighbors, rather than simply showing our muscle, is an important part of rebuilding America’s prestige.” Council on Foreign Relations speech - Sept 28. 2007

Hunter:

“I would say this to every other nation in the world:
when you were sick, the Americans brought medicine. When you
were hungry, the Americans brought food. When you had
earthquakes and tsunamis and floods, the Americans came. And
when when you were insecure and you were attacked,
the Americans left the safety of their own homes and came
to defend you. I will never apologize for the United States
of America”. - Iowa Straw Poll, August 2007

[ilgipper]

Maybe the CSIS should pick up a few history books.

[Eagles6]

What is AFP? Not Armed Forces Press, I hope?

The un and the rest of the third world disorder (along with 1/3 of our population) like it best when America has been struck and seems vulnerable. Thats why they liked carter and clinton. They didn't kick ass and take names, they asked "How did we hurt your feelings?"

[rabscuttle385]

"The United States must become a smarter power by investing once again in the global good -- providing things that people and governments in all quarters of the world want but cannot attain in the absence of American leadership."

Translation: "We want more money." -The World

[CivilWarguy]

I have no doubt the report is in the main correct. What we have to do to get into the good graces of the world’s mullahs, communists, socialists and appeasers is to be more like them. Maybe we should all become Muslims—that’d make the world happy.

[NormsRevenge]

Board of Trustees and Counselors
http://www.csis.org/about/trustees/

CSIS trustees are drawn equally from the worlds of public policy and the private sector. They contribute a wealth of expertise to the Center’s mission and management. One asterisk (*) denotes a member of the Executive Committee and two asterisks (**) denote a CSIS Counselor.

Chairman
Sam Nunn* ** — Cochairman & CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative

Vice Chairman & Co-Founder
David M. Abshire — President, Center for the Study of the Presidency

Chairman of the Executive Committee
William A. Schreyer* — Chairman Emeritus, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee
Anne Armstrong* — Former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain

President & CEO
John J. Hamre* — President & CEO, CSIS

Trustees
George L. Argyros — Chairman & CEO, Arnel & Affiliates
Richard Armitage — President, Armitage International
Betty Beene — Former President & CEO, United Way of America
Reginald K. Brack — Former Chairman & CEO, Time, Incorporated
William E. Brock** — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
Harold Brown** — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
Zbigniew Brzezinski** — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
William S. Cohen — Chairman & CEO, The Cohen Group
Ralph Cossa — President, Pacific Forum/CSIS
Richard Fairbanks — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
William H. Frist — Trustee, CSIS
Michael P. Galvin* — President, Harrison Street Capital, LLC
Linda W. Hart — Vice Chairman & CEO, The Hart Group, Inc.

Ben W. Heineman, Jr. — CSIS Trustee and Senior Adviser
Thomas O. Hicks — Chairman, Hicks Holdings LLC
Carla A. Hills** — Chairman & CEO, Hills & Company
Ray L. Hunt — Chairman & CEO, Hunt Consolidated, Inc.
E. Neville Isdell — Chairman & CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
James L. Jones — Trustee, CSIS
Henry A. Kissinger** — Chairman & CEO, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Kenneth G. Langone — President & CEO, Invemed Associates, LLC
Donald B. Marron — Chairman & CEO, Lightyear Capital
Joseph Nye — Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government
E. Stanley O’Neal — Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc.
Joseph E. Robert — Chairman and CEO, The J.E. Robert Companies (JER)
Felix G. Rohatyn — President, Rohatyn Associates, LLC
David M. Rubenstein — Cofounder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
Charles A. Sanders — Former Chairman & CEO, Glaxo Inc.
James R. Schlesinger** — Senior Adviser, Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Brent Scowcroft** — President, Forum for International Policy
Rex Tillerson — Chairman & CEO, Exxon Mobil Corporation
Murray Weidenbaum — Hon. Chair, Weidenbaum Center, Washington University
Frederick B. Whittemore — Advisory Director, Morgan Stanley

TRUSTEES EMERITUS

Dolores D. Wharton
Amos A. Jordan

COUNSELORS

William E. Brock — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS

Harold Brown — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
Zbigniew Brzezinski — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
Frank C. Carlucci — Counselor, CSIS
Richard Fairbanks — Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
Carla A. Hills — Chairman & CEO, Hills & Company
Henry A. Kissinger — Chairman & CEO, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Theodore McCarrick — Counselor, CSIS
Sam Nunn — Cochairman & CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative
James R. Schlesinger — Senior Advisor, Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Brent Scowcroft — President, Forum for International Policy

[Brilliant]

“report by a 20-member think-tank...”

Why not just say “20 idiots?” These think tanks usually consist of politically motivated underachievers who were chosen because they would produce the report that the appointers wanted.

[Brilliant]

ideas, and not bullets, huh?

Try these ideas on Osama and al Zawahiri.

[IronJack]

if it wants to patch up its battered global image,

And what if it doesn't? What if America doesn't give a tarnished tinker's damn about its "global image" anymore, after decades of abuse, insult, and humiliation on the world stage? What if America is giving a one-finger salute to "the world" and telling it that we, America, will go it alone if we have to, but that we will NOT apologize to any bunch of sissified handwringers because we dare to defend ourselves.

Note to world: go to hell.

[upsdriver]

Another commision that needs to be mothballed. What a bunch of defeatist morons.

[Wuli]

Apparently the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan were not included in the study.

[prov1813man]

Jeeze, who wrote this crap ? We should send them into the panshir valley humming the melody from kumbiyah and see how their “smart” approach serves in keeping their heads attached to their bodies.

Of Course the enemy is mad at us, we shot back.