The next president of the USA needs only to know the desires and aspirations of Americans and to pursue them as best he or she can. America does not owe the world it's leadership, just as other nations owe nothing to the US. We are all interdependent, of course, in so many ways, and should come to the table as equals ready to bargain.

Was it a "misadventure" for America to preemptively defend itself and Western countries from the potential nexus between rogue states, such as Saddam's, and al-Qaeda and its offshoots that would pose an existential threat to Western civilization?

The U.S. won the battle against the Hussein regime but it did not win the war-because of a series of grievous strategic errors-so it could not establish peace. But it's winning the war now under its imaginative and innovative commander General Petraeus (as I predicted in a paper of mine one year ago titled 'Blueprint For Victory In Iraq') and the dawning of peace rises on the horizon.

My friendly message to Nikos Konstandaras is also short:Remove your idealistic belongings from the world.

You write the truth. Thank you.

This column was thoughtfully written and filled with many truths. Sadly, the current administration has placed our country in a precarious position and managed to undo decades, if not centuries, of American diplomacy. It will one day be shown that the saddest day in American history was the day George W. Bush assumed office and began the decline of America in the eyes of the rest of the world. I truly pray for our next president, who will spend the first presidential years attempting to undo all the damage that this administration has done to the country. This will not be an enviable or easy task.