America is being used.
The catalyst for my realization of this is the current Libya situation. Apparently, the US decided to wait on the UN to tell us that we could launch missiles at Libya. I see it differently. The UN wouldn't have approved the "no fly zone" over Libya in the first place if they weren't 100% sure we'd go in shooting as soon as they told us to. It's as if we are the pitbull that the rest of the world likes to use as a guard dog. The UN clears a path and says "America! Sic-em!" and we charge in snarling and ready to bite anyone in range of our jaws. Because clearly, every revolution, civil war, riot and social disturbance in the world is OUR BUSINESS. Clearly.
We are used as a rent-a-cop security force around the world. Our government likes it. Not too sure why. And I think the general public, being as well informed as we are because of things like the internet, is going to realize how we are being used sooner than they'd like.
Not only are we hired thugs throughout the world, we are also expected to feed the world, consume electronics and gasoline and all manner of disposable shit that the world makes for us to consume. We give and give and give money and manpower, and the world uses us like a cheap whore. And when they get tired of using us for our money and idealistic, jar-head military, they'll kick us to the curb.
Not that I consider that a bad thing. I think the US would benefit from being kicked out of the center of the world's attention. We could focus on ourselves for once; heal our sick, care for our poor, house our homeless, feed our hungry, etc. Maybe even have some riots and revolutions of our own.
If it were up to me, I'd call back ALL the troops, let the world fend for itself, feed itself, and trade with itself. I'd create jobs by creating American made goods and food in American factories and fields staffed by American citizens. Legalize drugs and profit from the revenue that the current black market creates. Socialize healthcare, food distribution and housing for those that need it. Kick our petroleum addiction and use the sun and the air and the water to provide cheap power for everyone. Focus on systematically converting our cities into environmentally friendly places to live with alturnatives to the wasteful practices we currently employ.
Think about it. How much money would we save if we pulled our troops back, stopped being antagonists, and took up a defensive, reactive strategy rather than an offensive, preemptive one? How would the world's view of us change if we stopped sticking our fingers into their business? How limitless would the possibilities be with all of the savings our country would generate by making our own stuff and not policing the world?
And, most importantly, why do we continue to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by our government, bad decisions, and the greed of the world?
We'd go completely bankrupt if everyone we owed money to decided to cash in all at once. Japan, a single country, holds massive emergency reserve currency bills in US dollars. They are facing national crisis and could sink our economy deeper into the hole we've dug for it if they decide to cash in on those bills.
My conclusion is that we should pull in and help ourselves before we have to split the country up into pieces and give it to debtors in order to pay them off. Then we will no longer be Americans, and the dream will end having never really been realized. H.S. Thompson believed that the American dream was dead. I believe we've merely turned it into a nightmare through our irresponsible meddling. My hope is that we will wake up and be able to stop the train wreck before it happens.
The end.
I really love freedom and liberty. I wish that our government felt the same way, and lived for the will of the people, not the job security of career politicians. (But that's another rant...)
