If the sun were suddenly to vanish, the planets would darken and be flung into the frigid wilderness of outer space, doomed to lifeless oblivion. In world society, politically and economically, the United States of America is the powerful, and morally illuminating, force without which the nations of the world would soon descend into barbarism, warfare, and extinction. This may sound to some like nationalistic boasting, but whether consciously or not, all the nations recognize it as fact. Even our enemies sense that our strengths are largely the product of our principles of law, justice, and mercy — principles sorely lacking in much of the world.  I was struck by this when at the end of the second war in Iraq, tens of thousands of enemy soldiers surrendered en masse, fully expecting (and receiving) humane treatment — treatment of a sort that they knew their own forces would never have given their own enemies had the outcome been different. Even the...(Read Full Post)