The World's Bodyguard

The left would have us believe that it is not our place to get involved in the affairs of other countries - that they don't like - and the right would have us believe that it is our moral obligation to help those less fortunate.

A pox on both their houses.

The Left:
"Why Iraq? North Korea HAS nukes...why don't we attack them?"
Such mindless stupidity. The fact that North Korea could practically hand toss those couple of nukes on major population centers in South Korea leading to mass casualties seems beyond their ability to comprehend.
"They can't harm us, they are no threat."
A couple of guys from "them" hop a plane and fly it into a building. Harm and threat.
"Why can't Iran have nukes? We have them..."
If you can not see the difference between Iran and the United States...oh, wait, you can, we are imperialist, they just want to defend themselves.....right...and the threat from their leader to wipe Israel from the map, well, that's Israel's problem right?

The Right:
"They have a right to liberty."
Yea, and they have a responsibility to fight for it. It is not our responsibility to do it for them, help them yes, but not build the house and hand them the keys.
"If not us, who?"
The world, the part that proclaims itself civilized, has had it's military needs provided by the US for the last 60 years. They have forgotten that the absence of their military was not the reason for the absence of conflict. The Balkans proved that when faced with armed conflict in their own backyard, they have lost all will and means to deal with it. However, that does not mean we should continue to provide for them.
"They are a threat and must be faced"
Iran and North Korea and Syria are NOT threats to the United States. They can and will take opportunities to inflict casualties where and when possible against Americans, but there is no country, or even group of countries currently on this planet with the capability of inflicting permanent damage on the United States. Even if a nuke explodes in New York or Washington. Ignoring the utter stupidity such an act suggests, the repercussions against the perpetrators would exceed Dresden and Hiroshima by such a magnitude as I could imagine the entire world would be actually stunned into silence...for a time. I like to think no one is that stupid, but I know better. However. I see no reason for preemption. This is a change for me. Primarily because a large portion of AMERICANS are such whining cowards that our government fights wars short-sheeted. A large vocal portion of the American population can not conceive of a reason for war. It might take the deaths of a million fellow Americans on American soil to convince them otherwise. I am not asking for, or hoping for such an attack. I believe that given time, it WILL occur. And the longer people continue the whining and anti-war protesting, the MORE likely it will happen.

So. For the last 30 years or so, people have complained that we were acting like the world's police and who gave us that right? It was not a right, it was an obligation because so many countries in the world abdicated their responsibility to provide for their own defense. So much so that they began, and do believe, that their lack of responsibility in fact was a right.
The last 15 years, those same people have changed their words and increased their strident tone. Calling our actions imperialist. Again, such shear stupidity and ignorance should be dismissed out of hand, except it is coming from "learned and respected" sources. I am neither and it is stupidity and ignorance that fuels their beliefs.

I am tired of the shit we get for doing the right things. First, almost no one outside this country thinks it is the right thing we do, and second, a large portion of our own population does not believe or support it either. I don't always agree with the President, but I was taught that if you do the right things, a lot of people are not going to like you. It seems from the President's approval rating he is doing a lot of the right things.

I do not want to be protectionist or to withdraw into a shell. Too much of our economy relies on the outside world - although I believe that we could survive better than any other country if we were to do so. I do want every US military base in every other country closed and the military withdrawn to our shores. I believe that we can not do so for Iraq. Now, or for the foreseeable future. But there is no reason to still have troops in Europe or Asia.

I am tired of being the world's bodyguard. Time for everyone else to step up (or not) and take responsibility for their own survival. If Iran wants to nuke Israel, it faces a short existence as a net glass exporter. If North Korea wants to starve itself into oblivion, so be it. If Africa wants to continue slaughtering it's own population, let it. If South America wants to revert to socialist peasantry, I can live with it.

Is it the right thing to do? No, but what I think is right is no longer shared by the vast majority of non-Americans, nor by the 'apparent' majority of Americans.