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When Army Captain Ian Fishback decided to blow the whistle on prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, he posed the central question confronting America in the twenty-first century:
“Will we confront danger in order to preserve our ideals, or will courage and commitment to individual rights wither at the prospect of sacrifice? My response is simple: if we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression, then those ideals were never really in our possession. I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is ‘America.’”
But what is this idea? George W. Bush waged war in Iraq in the name of American values – liberty and democracy. His critics in the United States and around the world use the language of values, too, and attack him for deceiving a nation to wage an unjust war. What values does America truly stand for?
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In The Idea That is America, a pre-eminent foreign policy scholar elegantly and passionately reminds us of the essential principles on which our nation was established: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility, and faith. Our ongoing struggle to live up to America’s great promise matters not only to us, but also to the billions of men and women everywhere who look to the United States to lead, protect, and inspire the world. In The Idea that is America, Anne-Marie Slaughter sets forth a bold vision of an America that upholds its values abroad as well as at home.
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