‘Biggest guy on the block’ lectured on self-restraint

The warning did not come from a conspiracy theorist, religious fanatic or blogger thriving on anti-American content. It came from Lawrence Wilkerson, a former Army colonel and chief of staff to Colin Powell while the latter was US secretary of state. The United States, Wilkerson said during a media interview, was precariously adding more and more nations to its enemy list, which is looking overwhelming already.
Speaking to the Real News Network a few days ago, Wilkerson, currently a professor at the College of William & Mary, concluded that in spite of the large amount of money the US spent on the military personnel and high-tech equipment, it is “utterly beyond our capacity to deal with all these enemies” that the American government has generated.
Few would question Wilkerson’s patriotism, so the US government should take heed of what he said. According to him, it is unfathomable that the US can still go around bringing new faces to its enemy list. “Look at who we’re lining up,” he said. “We’re lining up China. We’re lining up Iran and all that goes along with Iran, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. We are lining up with North Korea. We are lining up with Russia. This is absurd. ... We do not need an enemy list that is beyond what we could even in the wildest moment contemplate handling.”
Wilkerson’s interview has been treated with different degrees of seriousness by the American and world media. “Empire in decay,” the Real News Network's Internet report is headlined. One coverage highlighted his suggestion that America is “the death merchant of the world”, beginning the story with Wilkerson being tired of “the corporate interests that we go abroad to slay monsters for”.
What should make America worry more is the fact that Wilkerson’s warning is only strategic, dealing with the question whether it is wise to have this many enemies while having the present military might. He did not venture into the controversial territory of debating ideological points. Simply put, Wilkerson says that America’s enemy list is strategically wrong, and stops short of saying whether it’s ideologically right or not. 
He does view the overall American future as gloomy, though. The US systems of government, economy and society are functioning badly, he says, pointing out that personal interests have either overshadowed or threatened the “Nation First” principle. Even US allies, he suggests, may be in for a share of the spoils and not as ideologically tied to the country as generally believed. 
What should America do now? Being the “biggest guy on the block” is a double-edged sword, Wilkerson points out. On the one hand, that makes it easy to get others to agree with you, like when the US administration claimed there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. On the other hand, you don’t really know whether the others sincerely agree with you or not. It could be that you are wrong but they agree with you anyway.
It’s hard to be considerate when you are the biggest guy on the block. It’s a lot easier to be inconsiderate without knowing it. Adding the strategic problem of having too many enemies at the same time and America’s superiority can become precarious. Warnings like Wilkerson’s can be laughed off or responded to defiantly but, ominously, that is “the biggest guy of the block” often does.
A good response is needed, for America’s own good.