Last month, Congress passed a defense budget that will cost American taxpayers over $500 billion dollars...and when you add in the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers get closer to $1 trillion. To put these numbers in context, the United States spends more than the next 45 highest spending countries in the world combined. In our own budget, the defense portion of the budget (again, minus the wars) takes up 54% of the money that Congress has available to spend this year.

Unlike domestic policy, the American public is usually willing to leave foreign affairs to the "experts" unless things are seriously off course. According to polling done by Public Agenda, the contemporary anxiety indicator stands at 136 on a scale where 150 indicates a collapse of confidence in the government's foreign policy. In general, over the past two years, Americans have less and less confidence that our present strategies will enhance US security.

While Americans debate whether the United States is really ready for a female president (examples: Michelle Malkin believes that, "This country would certainly have no problem being led by a woman…;" Jess notes, "I hate myself for saying it, but I'm saying it anyway: America is not ready for a woman president."), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been leading, healing, and rebuilding Liberia as its president since 2005. I'm a little disturbed that the idea to write about Ms. Johnson Sirleaf came from an ExxonMobil ad honoring her and other women in the op-ed pages of my newspaper, but there is it. (It's nice to think that about 1 or 2 cents of every $3.50 gallon of gas purchased is going to raise awareness that "women can.")