Post by Magnet Man on Sept 10, 2006 15:34:19 GMT -5
How the United States ended up with a lop-sided Foreign Policy and is playing a losing game.
Contributing towards the well-being of one’s neighbors ensures domestic security. International goodwill is vital.
America has been forced to look inward and attend to her own domestic policy ever since the revolution. The business of building a national consciousness and extending civilization ever further into the New World wilderness, while catering to an endless influx of the world’s immigrants, is the natural cause of that inward sight. The bloody Civil War and the painful generation that licked its wounds afterwards, allowed the country to resolve a host of internal issues. The resultant sense of national unity allowed America to view itself as a global power.
If Europe and Asia had gotten over their selfish imperial squabbles by the start of the 20th Century, America may well have ventured out into the larger world with a keener sense of respect for other nations and the delicate diplomacy needed to establish lasting good foreign relations. But everywhere America looked the globe was in turmoil - leading Uncle Teddy to simplistically believe that a big American stick could dominate and police international order. This simplistic view of world diplomacy was reinforced by the disgrace of two World Wars. In both wars America was dragged into international conflicts against its will and forced to take sides. Since then America’s disparaging view of foreign powers, as expressed in the United Nations Organization, has worsened, culminating in the present administration’s refusal to sign a number of vital international agreements. The administration further alienated the international community by reserving America’s right to use pre-emptive force when-ever and where-ever Uncle Sam deemed it necessary.
The reactionary result of this bully-boy foreign policy, as we are all painfully aware, is that America has bared its vulnerable under-belly to international terrorism.
Historically, once there is a general sense that that the powers that be are in-sensitive to the needs of the masses, and no serious attempt is made to address it, no nation has ever been able to halt and contain the growth of internal resistance movements by force and avoid a revolution. What is not fully appreciated about the current revolt from the Middle East is that this is not a foreign affair that can be settled by a military invasion and forced occupation. The world has shrunk and at the same time become more over-crowded. The shortage or glut of essential commodities is a global phenomenon that affects every-one almost immediately. Communication and transportation is almost instantaneous. Ethnic groups of every political and religious outlook are spread across the globe. The grievances of once-far-off relatives are now made real and immediate via the internet. Cells of dissidents are lodged in every nook and cranny of developed countries. In effect all and any resistance to insensitive government anywhere on the planet becomes internal everywhere.
We are in a whole new global-sized ball game and America is playing via self-centered nationalistic rules that no longer apply in a global milieu. Unless we make a serious attempt to address international distress signals which are in effect internal, history informs us that resistance movements will grow in power and eventually engage us all in a violent global revolution.
We need to re-examine our foreign policy and consider an extreme make-over. If there is to be a global revolution, as all signs indicate, America has the power and resources to make it a peaceful one
Contributing towards the well-being of one’s neighbors ensures domestic security. International goodwill is vital.
America has been forced to look inward and attend to her own domestic policy ever since the revolution. The business of building a national consciousness and extending civilization ever further into the New World wilderness, while catering to an endless influx of the world’s immigrants, is the natural cause of that inward sight. The bloody Civil War and the painful generation that licked its wounds afterwards, allowed the country to resolve a host of internal issues. The resultant sense of national unity allowed America to view itself as a global power.
If Europe and Asia had gotten over their selfish imperial squabbles by the start of the 20th Century, America may well have ventured out into the larger world with a keener sense of respect for other nations and the delicate diplomacy needed to establish lasting good foreign relations. But everywhere America looked the globe was in turmoil - leading Uncle Teddy to simplistically believe that a big American stick could dominate and police international order. This simplistic view of world diplomacy was reinforced by the disgrace of two World Wars. In both wars America was dragged into international conflicts against its will and forced to take sides. Since then America’s disparaging view of foreign powers, as expressed in the United Nations Organization, has worsened, culminating in the present administration’s refusal to sign a number of vital international agreements. The administration further alienated the international community by reserving America’s right to use pre-emptive force when-ever and where-ever Uncle Sam deemed it necessary.
The reactionary result of this bully-boy foreign policy, as we are all painfully aware, is that America has bared its vulnerable under-belly to international terrorism.
Historically, once there is a general sense that that the powers that be are in-sensitive to the needs of the masses, and no serious attempt is made to address it, no nation has ever been able to halt and contain the growth of internal resistance movements by force and avoid a revolution. What is not fully appreciated about the current revolt from the Middle East is that this is not a foreign affair that can be settled by a military invasion and forced occupation. The world has shrunk and at the same time become more over-crowded. The shortage or glut of essential commodities is a global phenomenon that affects every-one almost immediately. Communication and transportation is almost instantaneous. Ethnic groups of every political and religious outlook are spread across the globe. The grievances of once-far-off relatives are now made real and immediate via the internet. Cells of dissidents are lodged in every nook and cranny of developed countries. In effect all and any resistance to insensitive government anywhere on the planet becomes internal everywhere.
We are in a whole new global-sized ball game and America is playing via self-centered nationalistic rules that no longer apply in a global milieu. Unless we make a serious attempt to address international distress signals which are in effect internal, history informs us that resistance movements will grow in power and eventually engage us all in a violent global revolution.
We need to re-examine our foreign policy and consider an extreme make-over. If there is to be a global revolution, as all signs indicate, America has the power and resources to make it a peaceful one
