http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080706_Head_Strong__Make-or-bre...

To the editor:

Michael Smerconish's op-ed appeal (Currents, 7/6) to take up the White
Man's Burden in Pakistan is another appeal to America's superpower
status, and to unilateral blustering actions which got us into such
difficulty over the past eight years. We are already a second-rate
financial power, and may already have reduced to second-rate status the
very armed forces that underlies our nation's past strength -- because
of the reckless policies and unrestricted deregulation that has
accompanied the Bush years. America is bleeding jobs, bleeding
prosperity, and bleeding technical superiority. Pakistan ought to be a
priority for international concern, but it is not our unilateral
responsibility.

Ben Burrows
406 Shoemaker Road
Elkins Park, PA 19027
215-266-2029