From the essay:
"...the real threat to our national security may be our own lack of faith in ourselves, meaning not just faith in a God who has a special care for America, but faith in the American national enterprise itself, in whatever form."
I'm not comfortable with the implication in this that God favors the US either becasue of, or despite, its past behavior. (The rain falls on the just and the unjust.) Yet, the writer is not trying to make a religious statement. Perhaps that makes the easy presumption behind the statement that much more unsettling.
And:
"The United States is still far from being a decadent country. And you cannot blame the American public from becoming disenchanted with a war that has gone on for so long and been so badly handled. The question is, in what direction—relative to our current and future adversaries—are we headed? Argue the question as we may, one thing is clear: We’re fated to find out."
First the decadence question. Of course the US is decadent. Who is kidding whom. It is about five to ten years along a path to its demise which may take 100 years to be fully recognized.
Also, a bit of "Monday morning quaterbacking" in this part of the article.
After all, wouild the US citizenry have accepted the engagement had it had evolved along the different lines the writer seems to be encouraging by the statement?
Perhaps later on, will afford time for Fr. Neuhaus' take.
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