But I'm about to propose something that, honestly, may cause you to turn some of that hatred towards me. That's fine. I'm not asking you to agree with what I'm about to say. All I'm asking is that you read it with as open a mind as you can find, considering everything we've been through as a country these past couple weeks. From there you can judge me all you like.
I am going to ask the same questions that may be on your mind. Why would anyone ever want to do this to America? What did we ever do to them? Well, unfortunately I think the answer in many cases is "a lot." Now before you start railing off, just hear me out. I am a die-hard american, I love this country, and I want us to continue to be the best country in the world. But there are things going on that you and I don't know about, things that I think if you DID know about them, you might think twice about some aspects of your life. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of the reason why our lives are so great here in America is because life is so shitty for those other parts of the world, many of which hate us so much.
Consider Afghanistan. That country bred the people who brought us 9/11. From what you see on TV, it's a bunch of thugs running around with rocket launchers, ruling by fear and killing over things like religion and tribal affiliation. It looks like a hellhole. But did you know at one point we were actually on their side?
Afghanistan was to the Soviet Union what Vietnam was to us. It was a proxy war location where the REAL combatants were the Soviets and the US, but it was all fought through the Afghans. We supplied them with weapons, we armed them to the teeth and showed them how to bring down Soviet fighters and soldiers. And most importantly, we promised them that we would be there to help the rebuild. The Afghans pushed the Soviets out, which was a huge victory for them -- but an even bigger one for us. And then we just left. No rebuilding, no fulfillment of our promises. We just gave them the middle finger and came back to our country.
Now, chances are that had nothing to do with you. You can say it's stupid or that it's not founded, or that there is no excuse for 9/11 (and you're right there, but we'll get to that). But the reality is, the hatred that country felt towards us when we abandoned them has played a huge role in the way things have played out. And entire generation of children grew up thinking of us as the assholes who promised them great things, made them sacrifice their lives, and then bailed on them when it came time to pay up. Those kids grew up and passed the message on, etc etc etc, and now here we are.
Movie to watch: Charlie Wilson's War
Consider Iraq. Saddam Hussein was a complete prick. He may not be the worst dictator the world has ever seen, but he was certainly up there. The things he did to his people were unimaginable, and because America is so awesome, we wanted to rectify the situation. So it was a nice little blessing when Saddam decided to invade Kuwait. There was our in, our chance to get into that country and blow the ever living shit out of an asshole.
That's what we did. And the Iraqis loved us. We were their liberators, their heroes. We were finally going to free them from oppression. And then, when we had Saddam backed up into his shitty little palace at the end of Desert Storm, what did we do? We bailed.
I don't know why we bailed. Political reasons? Was there something militarily that we didn't know about? I don't know, and we may never know. But once we were gone, what do you think Saddam did? Do you think he came out of hiding and was like "hey people of Iraq, it's cool, I get what you're saying, I'm going to be a better person having learned a lot from this experience." Hell no. He went on the warpath. And all these people who thought they were going to be liberated, were instead being tortured.
So you can imagine when we went BACK into Iraq a few years later, the atmosphere was a little different. How would YOU feel in that situation? Would you trust us? Especially knowing that chances are we were really in there for the oil anyway? Of course they aren't going to welcome us with open arms. Why would they?
Movie to watch: Three Kings
Consider North Korea, Iran, Palestine, anyone else we're "dealing with." Kim Jong Un is a psychopath. Amenijad or however you spell it is a whacko. They have been a thorn in freedoms's side and America's side for a long time, and I am in no way going to make excuses for them here. But let's talk about their countries for a minute. Let's talk about their people as a whole.
We deal with these issues by declaring "sanctions" on them. We cut them off from money, from resources, from food. We are basically telling the people of the country "if you want to get out of this hellhole of a life, you need to overthrow your leader and start being a stand-up country." This mindset comes from a good place. Here in America, there's no way we would stand for a leader like either one of those guys. We would overthrow them just like we overthrew the tyrants back in the colonial days. But see, we understand this concept because we as a country lived it, and taught it to our kids, passed it on, indoctrinated ourselves with it. It's almost impossible to imagine, but try to understand what it would be like if that type of thinking had never even entered your mind!
That's the situation we're in here. Brain washing is a powerful thing -- don't laugh, because in a lot of ways you and I fall for it just like they do. These people are so lost in their own minds, so convinced that they can never overthrow their leaders, so confused about what America is and who we are and what we represent, that it's almost impossible for us to get through to them. And in these instances, sanctions actually HURT our chances more than they help.
Do you think the sanctions are hurting Kim Jong Un? I doubt it. He probably still eats good meals every day, lives a fairly luxurious life, etc. Same with Iran's dude. But it's the people who are suffering as a result of these sanctions. They are the ones who can't eat, can't make a living, can't get on their feet. And while the goal of these sanctions is for them to look at their leaders living comfortably and get pissed off, instead they look at US as the reason they are so miserable. And they do get pissed off.
My point is, we are breeding our own enemies. Am I making excuses for these guys? Absolutely not. From what I can tell, it appears these two Russian assholes were just trying to make names for themselves. There is NEVER an excuse for killing innocent people. And like I said, I do think America has good intentions abroad. We are trying to make this world better for everyone who lives in it. But at the same time, we are abusing our power and position.
We're like the guy who won the Monopoly game but wants to keep playing. Our competitors continually land on our properties, and we could break any one of them and force them out of the game... but instead, we say "oh, well, I'll cut you a deal -- as long as you cut me one in return." Then, when we land on their properties, we don't pay a dime because of the slack we cut them. Then they land on ours again, we cut them slack, etc etc etc it just cycles in on itself. The difference is, while in Monopoly you can kick the board and throw it away, you can't really do that with the world. The only real option for these countries is to try to find a way to start the game over, to get us all back on even footing, and for many of them that means trying to do things like what we saw on 9/11. It's not right -- it's desperate.
Back to my point on brainwashing. If you're still reading this, chances are you have a pretty open mind. But think about back when Ron Paul started to bring points like this up at a Republican party debate. He couldn't get six words out of his mouth before the audience started booing. The look on his face said it all. He realized this was not a fight he could win, that this was an audience that would never listen to him, and in a lot of ways I think that moment killed any kind of momentum he may have had.
But why did the audience boo him there? Was it because he was wrong? Or was it because we don't want to hear what he was going to say? We don't like to think about the darker side of things, especially when it comes to international politics. If you knew every time you filled up your gas tank that other people were paying six, seven times as much just so it could be cheaper here, would that change your driving habits or what kind of car you owned? If you knew that buying a diamond potentially promoted a trade where people work terrible jobs and even get killed, would you still be excited to see a rock on that ring? Do you see where I'm going here? We have it so easy in this country, and it's easy to take for granted the fact that we're here because we're stepping on the backs of others. It's much easier to just not think about it, to ignore it so that we can sleep better at night. Believe me, I understand, I do it too.
The reality, whether we want to believe it or not, is that Ron Paul was exactly right. If China, or any other country in the world, tried to treat the United States like we have treated the countries I'm referencing here, we would be exploding the planet right this very minute. Imagine if Germany decided they wanted to set up a military base in Oregon. Or if China decided they would perform "naval exercises" in the Gulf Of Mexico. It would be a shitstorm! And yet these are the kinds of things we do to the rest of the world every single day! We control the world. It's good for us, but it's also bad for us, because while we might like to think we're seen as knights in shining armor, an inspiration for the rest of the world, we're more often seen as overbearing assholes who think way too much of themselves. It's not a positive message.
I want you to consider this before I stop jabbering. Consider what would happen if we, as a country, decided to say "F-you" to the rest of the world, and pull ALL of our resources and forces back to within our own border. Consider what would happen if we no longer had any kind of military presence in Europe. If we no longer helped Iraq or Saudi Arabia mine their oil. If we didn't give Africa any money to help educate their populations. If we stopped backing up South Korea or Japan. It's very hard to think about that kind of world, isn't it? Just typing it makes me nervous -- consider how exposed we would be.
But would we be, actually? I would wager that if we actually did completely pull back to within our own borders, the world would change quite a bit. There would certainly be some fighting. Countries like Israel and South Korea would have a tough time of it without our support. Countries like China or even Russia might try to take the opportunity to do the same thing they hated us for doing -- controlling the regions around them. But I would guess most of these guys would leave America itself alone.
This scenario would never happen of course. I for one think it would be disastrous, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing we basically left entire countries out there to die. But just think about what it would do, really. Take the death and unrest out of it for a second, and consider the long-term. Once things found their balance, the rest of the world would have to wake up and realized all of the good we have done for them over the years. Their lives would be radically different without us there. In the meantime, our country would be more defensible than ever. Our entire armed forces would be sitting here on our shores, basically saying "come and try your luck" to the rest of the world. We could put a soldier every ten feet on the border -- no need for a fence. We wouldn't be spending such large amounts of money on our military, think about how that would help the deficit! We could bring employment back to our country by focusing on our own resources. We would be fine, and we could sit back and watch as the rest of the world tries to figure out how to function without the Monopoly Winners helping things along.
It's an interesting, if ultimately unrealistic, idea. It's what we did at the beginning of World War 2, and when we finally said "alright fine we'll help," boy were the Axis forces sorry. America is every bit as strong a country now as we were then, the only difference is now we're spread much thinner. We really ARE the world's police force... and while I would rather it be us than anyone else, is that really what we should be doing? Are we ultimately setting ourselves up to fail by trying to do to much? In our never-ending quest to do good, are we actually doing harm?
I don't know. I just want you to think about it. Or don't.
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