One thing worse than an America that is too strong, the world will learn, is an America that is too weak.

The less oil the world uses, the less important the region that has so much of it becomes.

After all, the past is our only real guide to the future, and historical analogies are instruments for distilling and organizing the past and converting it to a map by which we can navigate.

One thing worse than an America that is too strong, the world will learn, is an America that is too weak.

While analogies are useful, however, they can also be misleading. They smuggle in assumptions that can be wrong.

The values, the programs, the formula, the determination, and the patriotism responsible for America's past success are still here to be tapped.

American power confers benefits on most inhabitants of the planet, even on many who dislike it and some who actively oppose it, because the United States plays a major, constructive, and historically unprecedented role in the world.