National Interest Or Self Interest? Not A Hard Choice

The Aspen Times (CO) ^ | June 20, 2014 | Melanie Sturm

[Aspenhuskerette]

If character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking, World War II Gen. Dwight Eisenhower radiated it on D-Day’s eve, writing that “any blame … is mine alone” in never-delivered remarks known as “In Case of Failure.”

In making one of history’s toughest and most consequential decisions — unlike those chronicled in Hillary Clinton’s new memoir “Hard Choices” — Eisenhower prepared for the worst as 150,000 men readied for a veritable suicide mission 70 years ago this month.

Willing to shoulder failure’s blame, even without knowing its reason, Eisenhower publicly attributed the anticipated victory to liberty’s cause and the Allied troops’ “courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.”

Trusting him to put the national interest before his own, Americans liked Ike, twice electing him president, assuring America’s reliability as a guarantor of peace, prosperity, stability and freedom.

Unfortunately, as a parade of disturbing scandals and glaring incompetence engulfs Washington and our national psyche, one thing is certain: Eisenhower’s style of servant-leadership is in short supply today.

More prevalent are self-serving leaders who routinely do the wrong (yet politically advantageous) thing — even in the Rose Garden when everybody’s looking — while refusing to Think Again about their misdeeds, never mind assume responsibility or apologize.

As if in the Soviet Union, where dissidents joked, “The future is known; it’s the past that’s always changing,” today’s national leaders promise the unattainable, spin the news cycle with false narratives, stonewall investigations, smear adversaries and label self-inflicted controversies “phony scandals.” Absent honest disagreement or accountability, the “truth” becomes any story that sticks as they coast on benevolent intentions, above the devastation.

[Aspenhuskerette]

Article covers Obama, Clinton and Eric Cantor. Is that fair to Cantor?

[Falcon4.0]

Seems to me that “Self Interest” equals “Individual Responsibility”. And Individual Responsibility means that I am not a burden to the “Tax Payers”.