I'm afraid we're not the same country that made us the most powerful nation on earth and won WWII. Times are a-changing, people.
While we still have the most powerful weapons, we lack the will to overcome the unconscionable numbers of American Socialists (and their even more numerous "useful idiots") that our politicians feel some strong need to appease. This country has been starving for true leadership since the days of Patton. While JFK did give us a brief glimpse (man on the moon), Reagan is really the only man who that projected dynamic purposefulness.
While discussing Iraq with a friend, one of the hard-core liberals in my class (who owns her own business is surprises many from time to time with her pro-business stances) interjected her opinion and said that there was just one thing about GWB she couldn't stand. I braced for some talking-points insult, like "dumb". She stunned me when she said that he just couldn't be like Clinton because nobody on the world stage ever wanted to stand against him, and he wasn't being more like Reagan: just doing the right thing without waiting for permission. He was trying to play both sides, and it gave her the feeling of watching a politician, and not a leader. I was stunned, and could not find much room to argue. (It's rare when I can't thump her with a solid retort.) Maybe that thought is just playing up to my hawkish side, but I find myself in almost complete agreement.
The world truly and desperately needs a real leader today, who will ignore the nattering nabobs, and just do what is right. Why we feel the need to appease those who have proven, ad infinitum, that they will oppose anything that we propose, no matter how righteous, proper, or necessary?