One Mans Blog
Specialization is for Insects.
Posted on Oct 24, 2007 - 12:58am by John P. in Politics, Quotes, Thoughts
I know this post is kind of random and out of the blue, but I was listening to someone on the radio making some ignorant statements and I had some thoughts I wanted out of my head…
I understand that some countries don’t like the US. I also understand that this is almost universally true when it comes to countries that lack freedom (Iran, N. Korea, China, the former USSR, etc).
But how can it ever come as a surprise to anyone when the US decides to take action? Let’s face it, you know if you’re a friend or a foe of the US LONG before anything happens.
46 years ago President Kennedy said:
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of freedom.”
Am I supposed to believe the world thinks we changed our minds?
I just thought it was important to get this out there because lately I’ve been providing information about the Opportunity Cost of the War in Iraq, quoting Bush’s hypocritical statement about nation building, and citing the new Presidential Dictatorship Doctrine.
Despite the current situation, anyone on earth would be out of their mind to even think for one split second that the US would shy away from any conflict if we felt our freedom, or that of one of our allies were seriously at risk.
I really just can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to ally with the US? Doing so gives you the biggest trading partner in the world, a great country to vacation in plus reciprocal tourism, the ability to get massive loans and foreign aid, the ability to influence US decisions, and much more. Being a foe is just bad news…
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Hmm, I might take something of a controversial position here, or a few. This is going to be a train-of-thought comment I can tell already ::sigh::
First of all, I take some issue with this use of the word ‘freedom’ which I have recently heard applied in all sorts of ways and contexts. How are we a ‘free’ country when our healthcare and education systems suck compared to countries that are far less ‘powerful’ and ‘wealthy’ in the world? Freedom, to me, might mean the freedom to get an education without bankrupting myself and to make a mistake, break my leg and also not bankrupt myself
Much less likely, but I might also consider ‘freedom’ to mean the right to follow my fundamentalist and bizarre religious beliefs that the US mocks openly.
Honestly I think the US is in decline and has been for a while as the world’s superpower. People don’t want to ally us on our costly crusades because they know this. The next power? Well, lots of people think China … maybe it’s India … could be the EU I suppose if they got their act together. Hard to say, but not us for sure. We’re living on time we borrowed long ago after the second world war left most of the then-world-powers in ruins.
The fact that we won’t back down and are so aggressive is, I think ,ultimately related to our decline in power. If we had acted more judiciously in these past decades we might not be so far in debt. I’m not a protectionist but I do think we meddle too much in foreign affairs we shouldn’t take part in, while ignoring things like genocide in parts of the world that aren’t rich in oil.
OK, this comment has turned into a virtual blog post
Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this fellow commentators and/or John! My essential argument: people make enemies with us because we have a fixed and inflexible idea of freedom and because people are aware that we are not the most powerful - or at least not for much longer - force to be reckoned with in the world.
Urbanist,
You are confusing handouts from the government with freedom. I would like to be free to buy my own housing, food, clothing, transportation, education, health care, entertainment and utilities with my own money rather than having the government take it by force, waste a large portion, and provide me “free” services.
Back to John’s point, countries would benefit from siding with us but typically our enemies are dictators that would rather profit directly from their own people while exuding complete power. Look at the Nazis, Communists, and extreme Islam, each had powerful dictators that profited off their own people and killed them off at will. Greed for money and power keeps these dictators from allying with not just the US but all free nations.
Yes, I’m going to have to agree with Tom here.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the concepts of universal healthcare and education, and although I’m not at all what one would call a bleeding heart liberal I would support any efforts to make those services available.
Having said that however, the same systems which provide all services to all people are the ones that make all people exactly, and nothing more than, equal. While nothing is free in America, the system under which we operate has proven to be the most successful economic system of all time (as illustrated by my recent GDP comparison).
It is the entire macro-economic model that allows people in the US to flourish like no where else on earth. So, you might have to pay for your education, but afterwards you have a lifetime of prosperity to recoup those costs in an economy unmatched anywhere on the planet. If that is not enough, you’ve got a military securing your future that is unmatched in the history of the world. Nothing short of Mutually Assured Destruction is going to take down the country.
Also, I’m not sure where the feeling arises that the US is in a decline as the world’s superpower? Don’t confuse our inability to have successful relations with other countries with a declination of power. This is a failure of diplomacy. Furthermore, you are a little young to remember, but the USSR was much more powerful than China has yet to even become, and look what happened to them.
So, all in all I have faith that we’re still in a good place.
John
I think it’s less about the US losing status as a superpower as it is realizing we’re much like the steak and potato captain of the football team facing a much smaller, much more agile, wrestler.
For the most part our size, brute force, and reputation/popularity (whether from admiration or fear), will carry us through most fights but when we find that person who can take us to the ground and choke us out, we’ll have to submit.
With less restrictions on industry, countries like India and China are flourishing (although both are now running into the after-effects of pollution etc.). I don’t think we’re about to lose status as much as we are about to realize these guys have become bigger blips on the radar, in a matter of speaking..
I agree too with the
sentiment. Freedom isn’t free and it isn’t about handouts. The fact is that *anyone* in America has the chance to better themselves. Sure that might not mean ahomeless person running for President, but it does mean a homeless person getting into a shelter, getting a job at McDonalds, saving up and getting an Apartment, going back to school at night, and making manager in 10 years. That’s the American dream (albeit one example) and our freedom makes it possible.
Alrighty, I can see I sparked some opposition. I’m going to take this one comment at a time. No, I am not confusing handouts with freedom. We do not live in a capitalistic state, like it or not. It is not capitalism or socialism or bust. Every modern civilized non-totalitarian-controlled government in the world is a balance. It would be easy for me - an educated, middle-class white male American - to agree and say: yes, everyone should have to fend for themselves, we all get equal opportunity. But the reality is we DON’T all get equal opportunities - I’ve had way more than most Americans.
Our ENEMIES are dictators? President Bush has violated more laws in his pursuit of power than I could begin to count. How can you not see his leadership as a dictatorship? The world is not black-and-white. The US doesn’t just represent ‘freedom and democracy’ just like our enemies don’t represent the opposite of those values. Hell, Saddam kept Iraq more ‘peaceful’ than we have. Greed for money and power? If that doesn’t also describe our leader I don’t know what does. Lives have been lost in Iraq, and Bush and his cronies have profited from those deaths.
Sounds like socialism to me.
I’d have to agree with a lot of the points that Tom and John made about the capitalistic positives that you are overlooking. And weighing those positives against the negatives that you’ve portrayed, I’d have to go with the capitalism that doesn’t necessarily make all of my decisions for me.
I, for one, am glad for the inflexible and unwavering stance that the United States takes on matters. I really do think that it’s unimpressive when other countries will dedicate themselves to a task and then withdraw after the going gets tough. Granted we make mistakes, but as in with people it shows a certain amount of heart to truly try to do a few amount of things very strongly.
Daylight again, following me to bed
I think about a hundred years ago, how my fathers bled
I think I see a valley, covered with bones in blue
All the brave soldiers that cannot get older been askin’ after
you
Hear the past a callin’, from Ar- -megeddon’s side
When everyone’s talkin’ and noone is listenin’, how can we
decide?
Do we find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground?
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground
Mother earth will swallow you, lay your body down
Find the cost of freedom buried in the ground
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
an interesting quote from Oscar Wilde…
“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.”
I dont agree with this, but i find it funny.
Hey did you realize your Google PR just went down from pr8 to pr5? It looks like the penalty for selling links without nofollows. There goes the free America JFK wished for us. GooglAmerica here we come… :-p
No way! That’s pretty crappy! You think it’s really a penalty, John?
You seem to be mixing up freedom and power. Our foreign policy has little to do with human freedom, and very much to do with extending the power of “our” domestic overclass. Hence, our second-closest ally in the Middle East is the KINGDOM of Saudi Arabia, where they imprison and whip women for getting raped. (The first closest is the little theological outlaw apartheid state called Israel.)
And your own arguments for allies (as if other simply get to choose in or out, before we welcome or attack them!) are ones of power, not freedom.
You have some thinking and much reading to do.
Michael,
I am unsure if you are lecturing me, or one of the other commenters…
If your comment was addressed to me, I would point out that I didn’t claim we are supporting freedom anywhere else, merely that we will use our POWER to maintain our own freedom.
I’m not making political commentary on this fact - merely pointing it out. The fact is, no one would have messed with Rome, Greece under Alexander, the Ottomans, or other super powers throughout history, so I would suggest it is naive to think the US should behave differently. So again, its better to be friend than foe.
I would also like to point out that you must not have read any of my other posts before suggesting that I am uninformed. You seem to have misread or at least taken this post out of context.
John