Last week, a Journal-World editorial expressed concern about one very serious possible outcome of last Tuesday’s off-year elections that gave Democrats control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

The editorial stated, “One of the biggest and scariest questions that really cannot be answered at this time is how historians 20-30 years from now will view this election relative to Uncle Sam’s foreign policy.

“Will Tuesday’s win by Democrats with many of the top Democrats calling for a major cutback in our presence in Iraq be looked upon as the point America forfeited its position as a world leader, at a time when American leaders were unwilling to call for the sacrifices associated with being the world’s champion of freedom and democracy?”

This concern is even more worrisome today, a week or more after the election, listening to the statements by some of the newly elected Democrats along with the many returning Democrats, concerning their plans on how to handle the Iraq situation.

Some have suggested the U.S. should start withdrawing troops within three months with a definite date for a total pullout. Others have suggested Uncle Sam should put together a plan to divide the country into three separate states or some other political division, giving one of these areas to the Kurds, one to the Sunnis and one to the Shiites.

There are other plans, but they all call for a withdrawal from Iraq. None of the Democrats want to be labeled as favoring a “cut-and-run” policy, but they want out of Iraq : the sooner the better.

What message does this send to other parts of the world where freedoms are denied, citizens are tortured and people are crying for help? In the past, Uncle Sam and the United States has been looked upon as the beacon of hope for hundreds of millions of people around the world. America still is considered paradise by hundreds of millions as evidenced by the massive numbers of foreigners who dream of coming to the U.S. and becoming a citizen.

Has the Iraq situation created a political climate where few if any future American political officeholders are likely to be willing to use U.S. power to improve human conditions around the world if they know such actions would likely result in their being voted out of office?

During the long election campaign, every Bush critic, every “expert” on what Uncle Sam should have done in Iraq had strong, positive statements as to how to correct the situation. It is so easy for a challenger to second-guess whatever an incumbent may have done.

It is interesting many of those who had all the answers, only a few weeks ago, as to what Uncle Sam should do in Iraq and how poorly the Bush administration had handled the situation, now don’t have any specific plans to suggest. They want hearings and call for a bipartisan solution, and that’s about it, nothing concrete.

Maybe they realize, now that they are ready to take power, that there are no easy answers, that it is a terribly complicated situation with many dangerous ramifications and consequences.

It’s one thing to have a nice-sounding, easy solution to a tough problem and call for action that will be popular with voters, but quite often it is an entirely different situation when these individuals have to produce, and double-talk and political campaigning will not get the job done.

Will many of the Democrats who had all the answers to the Iraq situation try to modify their pre-election know-it-all approach to Iraq now that they can control much national policy and can be held accountable for their votes and actions?

Will the election turn the United States into a different country, with new beliefs about what it stands for and what it is willing to fight for? Will Uncle Sam now start backing down from any possible confrontations, be afraid to take the lead in any ticklish matter, seek some kind of a more comfortable multicountry United Nations-type approach to solving deplorable conditions in various countries and become a true paper tiger – a country with a loud roar and a lot of chest pounding but not enough courage to back up the roar and outrage?

How will history judge the long-lasting effects of last week’s election?