Our Precipice
12.05.2009
Leave a Comment
A new surge, a new push. The additional 30,000 troops President Obama has pledged for the War on Terror in Afghanistan will bring the total number of US troops fighting there to over 100,000. I am not a national security expert or a world leader but in the spirit of free discussion I'm adding my opinion.
Since September 2001, the American people have entrenched themselves as victims. In all honesty we were victims of a terrible attack on innocent civilians. While I do not aim even in the slightest to undermine the tragedy of that day, I feel that the United States as a nation must move past 9/11. The world has been intrinsically altered in the "post-9/11 world" and not for the better. The United States has launched into a two-front war, the global economy has entered a recession, and fundamentalism is on the rise. We are quick to think of ourselves as victims in not only the sense that we experienced crushing tragedy but also in the idea that the events of the past 8 years are also not our fault. I argue that they probably were.
Indeed many turning points in international politics would not have occurred without 9/11 and the following US response. In many ways the world would have been helped if we hadn't mobilized in the way that we did. Our unilateral lust for blood only confirmed the rancorous accusations that the United States was a "great Satan" attacking the Islamic homeland. The interests of peace and American stability would have been much better served by an American transformation in the months following 9/11 rather than an international transformation. As we face another tragedy, a global economic crisis seemingly to far-reaching to be resolved within the next few years, we must utilize this period in American history as another reconstruction.
Evidence that bombing Afghanistan and occupations didn't work for the Brits either. Source- NYTimes 1919
As Thomas Freidman argued in his column in the New York Times Wednesday, the United States stands for much more than a War on Terror. The history of America as a nation devoted to a deeper and more significant aspect of freedom, democracy, and equality is fleeting. We have become the aggressor; a people singularly identified with war. We are simply another imperialist cause taken to "nation building" in two tions simultaneously. If history has shown us anything of the course of the last 2000 years, it is that Afghanistan, in particular, cannot be occupied successfully by a foreign power (Britain, USSR, etc.) Therefore, in order to save our image abroad, the respect of our allies, and our own stability, we must scale down our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and focus on a massive reconstructive effort at home. Think of what we could do with the money we continually spend in Iraq and Afghanistan. 101 million Americans could have had one year of college tuition funded by the government with the money already spent in Iraq alone. (That's 1/3 of the country!)
I argue for a massive overhaul of infrastructure projects and regulation. We must use reinvent the United States as a nation committed to progressive action- in terms of morality legislation, climate change efforts, and social programs. We must abandon our traditionalist views and step proudly into the 21st-century in terms of what is and is not accepted by the American legal system. We must accept gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research. We have to create legislation now to curb the effects of global warming as well as invest heavily in alternative energy. (If we don't hurt big business now what makes anyone think we could face them when they rebound) Social security must be reorganized to provide for the growing number of Americans reaching retirement and college tuition must be made more affordable for our teens. Universal healthcare must become a reality and the world must see that we are far from a single-issue constituency.
For to long the United States has been set apart with a negative stigma. It is time we reverse our international appearance. We need to be seen as a nation that does the most for its citizens, the world, and peace. We need our new leader to lead decisively. The United States is standing on a precipice. Our actions now will determine the scope of this global recession as well as the future role of the United States in an increasingly multi-polar world. We need to act.
0 comments »
Post a Comment