Where Has the Leadership Gone?

What has happened to America's influence around the world?  What a change from the days of Teddy Roosevelt and his "walk softly but carry a big stick" policies!  America used to be the nation everyone wanted to be like.  People came to the shores of America because it offered a haven from oppression and the opportunities for a better life.  Yes, they brought their languages and customs, but they became part of who we were.  They learned our language.  They became productive citizens.  They fought in our wars to keep others free.  They became law-makers and law-keepers.  America became great because of their presence.


But what has happened to America's presence around the world?  Yesterday ten America sailors were arrested by Iranian Revolutionary Guards when their ships became crippled and drifted into Iranian waters.  Fortunately they were released this morning.  But how did Iran become so brazen that they thought they could do what they did?  America's leadership has changed!  The days of Teddy Roosevelt and his "walk softly but carry a big stick" policies are over.  The days of FDR and the desire for victory over an enemy are over.  America has lost the will to win.  America has lost the will to maintain its leadership in the world.  I think we have been led to believe that just because we are America the world will acquiesce to our desires.  But, friends, leadership has to be earned first and then it has to be maintained.  Well, we earned our right to leadership through two World Wars and the reconstruction of both Europe and Japan after those wars.  But we began to lose our leadership capital with the collapse in Vietnam.  The Iranians laughed at us in 1979 when they stormed our embassy in Tehran and held our staff captive for over 400 days.  I remember those days of Iranian intimidation and America's tepid response.


There was a brief moment of recovery when President Reagan demanded that the Russians tear down the Berlin Wall.  And, not only did that wall come down, so did the Iron Curtain which had isolated Eastern Europe from the West for over four decades.  The Cold War was over...or, to perhaps express it better, it went into hibernation.  America had bested Soviet leadership; she could now lay claim to being the leader of the free world. 


That leadership was tested a short time later when Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait.  How would America respond to this threat to an ally that many of us knew nothing about?  Leadership was precise and direct.  Hussein went back to Baghdad to lick his wounds.  And the world celebrated America's leadership.  But America could not rest upon its laurels.  The world, the Islamic world in particular, began to take shots at American leadership testing the resolve of Washington and the American people.  The navy ship Cole was attacked while in a Yemeni harbor.  Our embassy in Kenya was attacked with hundreds dead.  The World Trade Center in New York was the target of aggression; the attack failed, but was a portent of things to come.  What was America's response?  It was certainly not "with a big stick." 


Then came 9/11 - a day most of us will always remember as our "Pearl Harbor Day."  This was the ultimate attack upon America's leadership.  The response was a calculated one.  We knew who the enemy was - at least we could identify a person.  But we were afraid to identify the ideology that framed the intent of that person.  [We are still hesitant to identify that ideology even though it has been nearly 15 years since that fateful day].  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were political wars.  They were military wars.  They were not American people wars.  Few of us were encumbered with the war unless we knew of someone who was "over there."  So, collectively, the American people did not have the will to win.  And so both wars just seemed to come to an end.  There was no decisive victory in either Iraq or Afghanistan; in fact, some pundits would say that both nations are worse today than before 9/11. 


The lack of a strong resolve on the part of America's leaders is now being tested by ISIS and Al-Qaeda and their off-shoots.  There were the attacks in Paris this past fall.  There were the brazen attacks at a Christmas party in San Bernadino, California.  The year began with a police officer in Philadelphia being shot while in his patrol car by a crazed terrorist.  And yesterday a megamall in Istanbul, Turkey, was bombed.  In each of these assaults, both here and elsewhere, responsibility for the attack was claimed by ISIS.  From testimony yesterday in Congress, we now learn that ISIS has cells in 20 countries around the world, including right here in the United States.  This radical Islamic faction is as great a threat to the world as was Nazism of sixty years ago.  Can ISIS and its allies be destroyed?  They may think that they are invincible, but so did Hitler.  Their defeat will only come if America will become a strong leader once again.  Victory in both Europe and Japan did not come through negotiations; it came through military strength.


Friends, the outside threats upon our nation are very real.  The events of 9/11 should have opened our eyes that we could no longer be isolated from the world.  What happened in Paris can happen here.  What happens in Great Britain can happen here.  In fact, it is happening here already.  As a result, fear has become a part of who we are.  The fears of terrorism will dominate the presidential campaigns this year.  Let's hope that someone will develop a plan that will work.


But, as I shared with some of my congregation this past weekend, my confidence is not in presidential campaigns, nor in military prowess, nor in legislative dictates.  No, my confidence is in God because I know that I am in His hands - there can be no safer place ever.  I trust that is where you have placed your confidence.  If you haven't, you still can reach out to Him and know that peace and presence and protection.