Well, the old saying is appropriate in this instance: Let’s stop gilding the Lilly!

We are who we are, and we should not try to become something else simply because we can make it look necessary.

We are Americans! Americans do not attack other nations or peoples without direct, demonstrable provocation!

We are the nation that is supposed to believe in democracy with a small ‘d,’ and though we have made our share of mistakes in the past, we must not make the colossal, soul searing error of becoming an aggressor nation.

Our strength has always derived from the fact that we don’t hit first. We are the nation that absorbs the first hit and then comes back to win the fight.

Yes, we have muddied that fact by our often-backhanded involvement in petty local conflicts during the long Cold War, but we have never negated the principle. We have achieved our status in the world on the basis of our creed, even though from time to time we have not lived up to it. But all of that history never erased the fact we held ourselves publicly and within our national soul to a higher standard.

We are not bullies!

We are the best of all the world states, and the only reason we can make that claim is that our nation is comprised of people from every part of the world. People from everywhere have come here to become citizens of this still young nation not only because it was freedom’s light, but also because it offered the chance for fairness and opportunity. Such chance was often realized only after hard work and brutal struggle, but ultimately fairness and opportunity could be and was often realized, along with equality through citizenship. We have always respected – albeit sometimes grudgingly – the immigrant who struggled to learn our language and our ways while working hard to build a new life.

Our ‘Political Correctness’ movement is a well meaning but misdirected effort to ameliorate such struggles. It is an attempt to alleviate the heat and harsh realities that occur when different cultures rub shoulders directly. The fact is, our ‘melting pot’ has always been a roiling cauldron, filled with seething hatreds and ethnic demands, and it was only after the mix of the given time period was cooled and melting pot’s contents distributed, that everyone found it palatable. ‘PC’ efforts are so often futile and generate so much contempt because they seek to avoid the internal struggle that ultimately makes us all one people.

We can’t speak multiple languages and still be the most powerful force for democracy in the world! We must speak with one principal language and we must also, even more importantly, speak with the clarity of one mind in assuring that the values that brought us all together in the first place are not diminished!

We must not become world bullies!

And this is why President George W. Bush must stop using ‘Islamic Terrorism’ as his launching pad for wars of aggression.

Our historic credibility is at stake.

If we strike first, without tangible provocation - at Iraq or anywhere else - we will have given up something precious, something that is certainly intangible yet of inestimable value. We will have once and for all given in to the politics of power. We will have shown the entire world that we are no better than any other nation-state; that when given the opportunity to invoke power politics with military muscle, we will do so for our own interests.

Now that Russia is no longer our juxtaposed counterpart on the world stage, but instead is our uneasy ally, President Bush and his administration seem increasingly susceptible to that most intoxicating elixir, total and unrestricted power.

This is diametrically the opposite of what most of the world’s people have expected and hoped for from America. People everywhere, in every walk of life, want us to live up to our so often stated values. Our values influence people and politics the world over, and now even more so since we are clearly the strongest nation on the globe.

President Bush is moving in contradiction to those values. He and his Republican Administration and the still largely ultra-conservative Congress are poised to launch us into the posture of an international bully. And our Democratic Party, as the ‘loyal opposition,’ seems frozen in place for fear that to do otherwise would be to appear timid in the face of Islamic Terrorism. This is false patriotism.

In effect, we are about to replace Russia as the nation-state that invades other, smaller nations because of perceived threats and patriotic assertions of the greater good, which is often synonymous with increased security. We should not think for a moment that the Russian people were not bombarded with perceived fears and patriotic values when the Kremlin wanted to invade a given country or dominate the politics of a region of the world. Propaganda is propaganda, no matter who wields it.

We are now being told that we are at war, and that in war we must forego our national values in order to win.

History teaches us that in all out war some values are suspended when it appears clear that to sustain them would lend the enemy a decisive or at least credible advantage. But that is not the case in 2002. We certainly do face an ill defined, somewhat rag-tag but assuredly dangerous international set of terrorist Islamic radicals who are determined to hurt us in any and every way possible.

But there is no nation-state, outside of Afghanistan, that we are willing to declare is the home of these radicals. So we cannot, in the traditional sense, be at war. Rather we are in a defensive posture against international, as well as potentially homegrown, Islamic radicals. To attempt to broaden this reality into an overall statement of "War Against Terrorism," is unrealistic but terribly convenient if the goal is the exercise of domination by the sole remaining global Super Power.

Are we to throw away all of our historic substance? It is our principles and our adherence to them through our history that is the very reason that people everywhere have rooted for us, even during our mistakes, because they perceived us as the one nation in the world that revered democratic principles above all else. And people everywhere also know that because of our principles, immigrants who emerge from the melting pot here have a chance to succeed and build a greater life. They know this because people from every corner of the globe have accomplished that and have been able to make it known to those back in the ‘old’ countries, often by sending money home along with stories of their success.

Are we to allow this administration and this disjointed, most conservative congress, to dispense with our national history and our national dignity? Are we going to become the next world bully? It will be a classic tragedy if we allow our national leaders to take this path. World history from the Greeks and Romans to the modern day Russians clearly illustrates that seeking world domination is ultimately the beginning of the end for the nation that attempts it.

We must not allow ourselves to be bulldozed by a sense of fear into a general war against an ambiguous, worldwide enemy. We did not win the cold war in order to replace Russia as the bully of the world, or to become an imperial nation that unilaterally imposes its views with force. Our values made America a great nation. We should not give them up now, especially out of fear or a concomitantly misguided sense that we will increase our security by striking first. Now is the time to show that America is indeed the ‘home of the brave and the land of the free,’ a country that will not disavow its roots because of a threat by totalitarian thugs masquerading as righteous religious zealots.

Editor’s note: If you have read this column and agree with its viewpoint, you might want to make your concerns known to your legislative representatives. There is some urgency, since it is apparent war plans are clearly in motion. Propaganda, as history has shown, is the visible precursor to war, and aggressive propaganda only indicates that war plans are well underway, as at least one retired American General has already indicated in publicized interviews. To call or write your senators or representatives click on http://www.senate.gov or http://www.house.gov  for the addresses of the Senators and Congressmen from your state.