Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the shrewd statesman from Singapore, was reported to advise the US government not to leave East Asia recently, otherwise the US would be in danger of losing its leadership position in the world. Shrewd as Mr. Lee has been, he apparently has not grasped the dire situation the US is situated in today’s world. With its unemployment rate on the rise, with the number of hungry people on the rise and the number of people losing their homes on the rise, plus the mounting national debts, the US may not have many other choices other than a gradual retreat from Asia as well as the world in the near future.

Many state governments in the US are operating at a big deficit. As a result, they have to cut services and increase taxes.

Students in University of California, Los Angels were demonstrating against the rise of tuition fees lately. The state university system of California has some of the finest public institutions in the US and the world. Faced with state budget cuts, the university authorities are making very difficult decisions. They are cutting salaries of the faculty and staff by 10 percent this current year.

The tuition fee will increase to US$10,000 a year, making it unaffordable for many middle class students. That is why the students were demonstrating. On top of that, the system of University of California is going to cut student enrollment by 40,000 state-wide to save money next year. In order to save money, they will eliminate many faculty and staff positions. One of the faculty members I met in a recent conference at University of California at Berkeley suggested that the people in California should rise to overthrow the state government in California. He was not joking.

The financial crisis has generated many other tolls in the US. The rising unemployment rate in the US caused many miseries. A significant percentage of American people live a life style barely managing from one paycheck to another. Once they lose their jobs, they lose everything, like homes and cars. For many people, changing from a middle class life style to a homeless status is only one step apart.

The recent US government statistics indicates that the number of hungry people reached over 47 million. meaning one out of seven people are hungry. The lines outside the food banks, where the homeless and hungry people could get free packages of food, are becoming longer and longer these days. Some government statistics indicates that 90 percent African-American children, and 50 percent children in general, lived on the government food stamps during their childhood. A society that fails to provide a good home and food security for its children will have consequences. That is a serious challenge for the world’s only “super power.”

The US is fighting two wars at the moment. Its military budget will be more than US$750 billion next year, 10 percent higher than when Bush was in office. Obama got elected with the promise to change, and to get out of the wars. More and more American people are seeing the absurdity of American war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. It costs billions of dollars on one hand, and hundreds of thousands of human lives on the other hand. The Iraqi people suffered the most, and then the Afghanistan people. Thousands of American soldiers paid the ultimate price as well. The injured soldiers, both physically and mentally, will continue to be a drain on American resources as they deal with their handicaps for the rest of their lives.

Now, the American commander in Afghanistan has requested more troops. He warned that if he did not get the reinforcement of troops, the US mission in Afghanistan would fail. The American people should ask him some questions first before sending more troops. If he got his 30,000 more troops, could he assure that the American mission in Afghanistan would succeed? What would be the measure of success in Afghanistan? The American government has just released the price tag of deploying one soldier in Afghanistan for one year to be US$ 1 million, and the total price tag for deploying 30,000 more soldiers in Afghanistan would be US$30 billion. US$ 1million will pay for 100 students’ tuition for one year in University of California system. American students and parents will not support such a costly war if their children’s education is at stake.

I think that President Obama is faced with a real dilemma. He is doomed if he sends more troops to Afghanistan, because the people who voted him into office would be pissed off for he betrayed his promise to American people. He will be doomed if he stands up to his generals’ demand for more troops. How can a non-soldier commander in chief deny a real general’s legitimate request for what he needs to win? He will be blamed for the eventual loss of American war efforts in Afghanistan.

I think that president Obama will have the political wisdom and courage to see the path ahead of him clearly. The American government as well as himself, can afford to lose in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the American government and himself can not afford to lose American people at home. With the financial crisis and all its other complications, American should retreat for a while from the world to tend to its wound. It is the only wise path ahead of the US. Continued meddling in foreign lands will get US deeper into trouble.

Dongping Han is Professor of History and Political Science at Warren Wilson College, NC.

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