Instead of ensuring a strong America for our posterity, our posterity is ensured a feeble future. Leaders elected to promote the interests of the American people have committed treason. Our officials in Washington seem not to work for us, but rather for various other countries around the world. US national interests are not being promoted. This is especially evident from the war in Iraq. Iraq is draining the US treasury, engendering terrorism, and marring our national image.

Bone dry is the US treasury. However the Bush administration continues to squeeze out every last sweet drop. Foreign borrowing has allowed us to spend beyond our means, the US budget deficit skyrocketing. In 2006 the deficit was $248.2 billion dollars. Tack that onto the US total foreign debt at $4.8 trillion. Although overspending is rampant in all sectors of government, the Iraq War has cost Americans almost $500 billion so far and may double to $1 trillion according to some estimates. Since the largest economy in the world cannot foot the bill it is financing it, leaving the premium plus interest to future generations. Most stunning of all is that America and its future citizens are paying for the liberation of another country—the burden born solely on America.

Since the onset of the Iraq War terrorism has taken on the properties of fissionable material. Iraq was once devoid of terrorist cells, despite the false assertion of ties to Al-Qaeda. Saddam’s reign imposed a balance of power in the country preventing terrorist insurrection. The American assault liberated pent-up aggression, unleashing havoc in Iraq. Terrorists in Iraq include volunteers from neighboring countries and a vast number of Sunni insurgents who are alienated from Iraqi society and the Shia-controlled government. There are more terrorists today than prior to the invasion in Iraq and elsewhere. According to the National Intelligence Estimate leaked to the New York Times, the Iraq War has exacerbated the threat, enlarging the global jihad movement by galvanizing Muslims to hate America—rightfully or not. This chain reaction of hatred will have to be quelled by future Americans.

Anti-Americanism is spreading about as fast as terrorist cells metastasize. It seems that going it alone was not worth the cost in tax dollars, human lives, or American prestige. Our former European allies have long abandoned the republic that saved them from fascism. Similarly even our staunch supporter in Saudi Arabia has recently altered its rhetoric from highly supportive to somewhat critical. Our key allies—ones we support even though they finance and harbor terrorists—have been infected by Anti-Americanism. Throughout the world Anti-Americanism is spreading and it will take a long time to regain the world’s trust—trust that is integral to American positioning and negotiation abroad—just one more ill Americans will have to cure in the future.

The solution is simple: revive realism; put America first. A realist foreign policy avoids costly crusades that weaken the nation. Democracy is an abstract concept that should be spread by example not American blood. Americans died for our democracy, we should not have to die for the Iraqi’s too. Military force and American lives should only be used to preserve the nation. America must not wait for the future to solve its problems. America must act now to reverse its course. America must demand that its leaders put American self-interest at the forefront of foreign policy.