AN OPEN LETTER TO VLADIMIR V. PUTIN

Dear Mr. Putin:

I read your Op Ed piece in the New York Times with interest today, and would like to offer these comments in reply (not rebuttal). Nearly all Americans would agree that peace is preferable to war, diplomacy is preferable to military action, and the Rule of Law, a core principle upon which America was the first nation in history to be founded, is always preferable to the rule of either the “Mob,” the ”Elite,” or the despot. The problem with your self-serving appeal to act only with UN approval is that the United Nations has no legislative power, and hence does not create international law, nor have the military power to enforce it. Moreover, the Security Council will almost always be a sham as long as any nation has veto power and, therefore, all votes must effectively be unanimous. It is a wonderful starting place for diplomacy, but only that.

The United States did not want the role of World Policeman and would gladly surrender it; the problem being that there is no nation or group of nations with the political will, economic base and military power to step into the void we would leave behind. For more than half a century, with all our faults, we have shouldered the burden of preventing chaos and holding back the darkness when no one else would. We have been the slowest to react to injury, and the first to send support when disaster strikes. We are not perfect, but we eventually admit our mistakes, and at least try not to make them again.

In your piece, you caution the President of the United States that it is dangerous to encourage Americans to believe they are exceptional. I say to you, sir, Mr. Obama did not encourage us to believe we are exceptional; he merely reminded us we are. If there has not been a world war since 1945, it is largely because the United States helped to prevent it. We have fed the hungry, protected the weak, welcomed immigrants from every nation on Earth, provided medical aid and education to those who lacked it, and spilled our own blood to protect innocent people around the world, and accomplished all this while exorcising our own demons of civil rights and intolerance.

Mr. Putin, WE ARE NOT PERFECT, but WE ARE EXCEPTIONAL. .