Recent news tells of: a guerrilla attack in Tunisia, possibly stimulated by Libya or the Soviet Union; terrorist activity in Israel; a presidentially proposed increase in defense spending; the U.S. boycott of the Olympics; Syrian and Israeli troop movements in south Lebanon; Pakistani concern about the degree of U.S. commitment; fifty hostages still in Iran; unease in Yugoslavia; and Soviet troop consolidations in Afghanistan, amid stories of chemical warfare and the use of nerve gas.
We get the feeling that this is an untidy and a dangerous world. What should President Carter do? What should our country do? What should we as individuals do? The answers to these and related questions are really parts of a whole. First, the answers require an understanding of the fundamentals of the world we live in. Second, they depend on a realistic assessment of our own circumstances. Third, the answers must come from an understanding of what our goals as individuals and as a people are. And it’s only then that individual steps or programs or policies begin to take shape and have a meaning. Only then can we begin to answer the question: How do we get from where we are to where we would like to be? The problems in Iran and Afghanistan are serious. But they can be solved only in the context of the broader questions.
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