Re: We Have Become the Nanny NO ONE Likes

Posted by maxmccauley on 01-09-2008 in United States Intervention

This has already been addressed under the thread "Does might make right? -- America's global role" -- if you click the browse button you can find it, it is towards the bottom.

You'll find lots of discussion about this subject has already taken place...and I'm sure people are still willing to debate this subject. It is a very important topic.

I'll answer you here.

"America has completely shifted from the isolationist principles our founding fathers stressed, which is very disturbing to me. We now spend so much attention to the rest of the world, using our power and influence to bully smaller countries around."

America has also shifted from a nation that was primarily agricultural to a nation primarily industrial to a nation that outsources too much. America also shifted from a nation with a large slave trade to a nation with segregation to a nation with a black man as one of the leaders for the Democratic nomination for president.

Times change. When Washington gave his Farewell Address urging the United States of America to remain neutral in world affairs we were a young nation without the military or financial power to compete with or influence the world powers. Hooray for Switzerland--they are neutral...as well as unimportant. Fact of the matter is, the US is the leader of the free world. We're gonna be involved, like it or not.

"Now, many of those countries we took advantage of are supporting leaders who gain power by promising to end America's influence on their region (Iran and Venezuela come to mind first). So by swinging our freedom stick to make the world a safer place (at least that's what I was told, I still believe the oil companies own our government)"

Insane, evil dictator is saying America is big and bad... we should believe him! Really, what do you expect them to say? "America is trying to end my regime and make all of you free, this is a good thing!"? Third world countries without democracies are bound to breed dictators--more than likely men whose ambition not only got them to the top but intends to keep them up there. These third world citizens do not have the benefit of an education that you and I do. They believe what their government tells them. I wish the entire world could be democratic but It can't. We're doing the best we can.

"we have made it one where you need a full body cavity search to see a baseball game."

Making outlandish exaggerations about security at sporting events might score you points with people who never go to them, but people who actually do know how ridiculous this statement is. I'm a huge sports fan--I go to Suns, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Sun Devils games...I've even been to a Coyotes game or two--and University of Phoenix stadium is the only one that even searches people. At the others they rarely even use a metal detector wand on you.

"I seem to think we should only use our power to end genocides, such as Darfur, but instead influence the world by setting an example."

Easier said than done. So we need to intervene in the genocide in Darfur, but when Saddam Hussein kills hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Iraq we should wait to find "Weapons of Mass Destruction" before we stop him? Look, I'm all for helping the poor people in Darfur and I wish we could, but it is much more complicated than that. The evil men who run Sudan and are overseeing the killing of all of the innocent people are backed by Russia and China. As sad as it is to say, interfering in what is going on in Darfur is completely against our national interest. We are making strides against genocide, however. Not many people know this, but George Bush is the first president in United States history to declare a conflict a "genocide." Presidents before-- Bill Clinton with Rwanda and Bosnia, Woodrow Wilson with the Armenian genocide, and FDR with the Holocaust--have chosen to either downplay these horrible situations or simply turn a blind eye to them. (I'm not trying to pick on Democratic presidents and say that Bush is great or anything, in fact all of our presidents who have been in power during a genocide have done a poor job handling it)

"Use the money we are spending overseas to generate jobs, invest in science and technology for cleaner energy, clean up the ghettos, fix health care, fix social security, protect our borders and ports, etc."

I do agree with you here. I wish we would allocate a larger percentage of our money towards domestic growth. This war in Iraq has become ridiculously expensive and as soon as the region becomes stable we need to withdraw. Would've been nice to see the 1,000,000,000,000+ dollars (not an exaggeration) we spent fighting this war in the Middle East go towards something like health care, energy, etc.

One last thought, I think Americans worry far too much about what the rest of the world is saying about us. No one ever likes the top dog. Throughout history, when Athens, Rome, Portugal, Spain, France, England, USSR, USA, etc. etc. were the largest force in the world, did anyone ever really like them? Did people in 1842 say, "Man I love the British Empire, it is so neat how the sun never sets on them?" We need to expect a certain amount of resentment towards our country, our status as the global superpower warrants that. The amount that foreign people "hate us" is exaggerated also. I have traveled to Europe and from my experience everyone was very friendly to me, even when they found out I was American. (And this was France, they are supposed to hate us the most).

America isn't perfect. Not even close. But would you rather live in a third world country next door to Rome or the United States? People say we are imperialistic--I say look at history.