Roger Cohen's "America's Limits"

Write a thoughtful response to the editorial-aim for a solid paragraph--and post it on your blog. Do you agree or disagree with Mr. Cohen? How does this piece inform your understanding of the changing context of the 21st century and the challenges facing the US as we move into the second decade of this century?

I definitely agree with Roger Cohen. I think that America is very nervous, as a nation, to really take the big finanical risks that we took in the past. I think America can still maintain it's identity as the nation that takes the big risks and leads the herd into the new ideas, etc., but America is going to have to set some limits on how fast it goes and how much money it spends on the process. I liked the fact that Obama said that it's not just America's job to save the world. America doen't take up the whole globe, so why should we have to. I believe that it should be a cooperative effort, but then again, this is the real world- meaning: there are countries who would rather end the world, than work with us.
This piece informs my understanding by showing that America isn't necessarily considered the top dog. It shows me that there might not be a "top dog" if we dont start working together with other countries to change our ideas on the economy and how it should be run and how to handle the environment. It also, not that this is anything new to me, but the article reinforces the idea that centrally run companies by big C.E.O's aren't necessarily the way a major corporation should be run. The economic downfall showed me that we should be cautious and very judicious about our money and what we do with it, etc.
This article has made me think a lot about my future. It makes me wonder if spending 45,000 dollars a year to go to undergraduate school and then med school is even worth it, becuase when I get out of med school, will there be a competitive medical field, and if not, how I will pay off the near 300,000 dollar student loan debt that I will inevitably have to pay, job or no job. It also makes me think about foreign relations policies a lot. Should we invade other countries just because we think that we can spread democracy to them, therefore making their countries just as good as ours. Who is to say that our country is the best and that eveyrone should be like us? Granted, I do think our country is better than most, but I think that the U.S. needs to focus a little more on passing this health care reform and other major pieces of legislature sitting on the desks in Washington, just collecting dust- so that I can see how my future is going to look and what major college decisions I need to make. Now, I will most likely get criticism for saying that I only care about myself, but look at the major chiefs of Wall Street a year ago. Does anyone honestly think that they were watching out for the "little/ common people" below, when they were purchasing their 200,000 dollar vehicles and their multiple 3 million dollar mansions in Aspen, the Hamptons, and Connecticut? Of course not. The only time they paid attention to the people around them was either when they were looking for the friends in a crowd at a fancy dinner, or making sure that while occasionaly walking down 5th Avenue (because they felt guilty for their private car emissions), that their brand new loafers didn't get trodded on by the towns people walking next to them.

Back to the foreign relations...
I feel that if someone is going hit the U.S. with a nuclear weapon, they might as well take themselves out also. Since all of the prodcuts consumed by everyone go through most parts of the world before they end up in your home or on your table, so bombing part of the world would be a really ill-thought out idea.

As far as moving into the second decade of the 21st century, I welcome the future. It will definitely be interesting to see how the future plays out!