Believe it or not, we are NOT the World's Policemen.

[johnaries]

Some of us remember PNAC and their neo-con dreams of a Pax Americana. It was such a short time ago, I can't believe so many have forgotten it already. *sigh*

Some of us are actually old enough to remember the Cold War and how the CIA and MI6 "medled" in so many foreign affairs and actually made things worse instead of better. *sigh*

There are a lot of exciting things going in the world right now, whether for good or ill. Which really depends on your perspective.

The WORST thing we can do right now is get "entangled" in those happenings. They have to be allowed to play out naturally. We can be an example. We can rail against Human Rights violations.

But we cannot get entangled. Because then we feed the power of the very powers we oppose.

Sometimes it's best to let a country work out it's problems on it's own. Iran is a perfect example. Khomeini would have never been able to take power if we hadn't interfered and helped impose a monster on Iran. And, BTW, we put Saddam Hussein in power. The more we interfere, the more we make things worse.

[Q3JR4]

1. Whaaaa?

Q3JR4
Couldn't prove it by me...

[johnaries]

2. Shocking, isn't it?

[imdjh]

3. If schmmiff nt

[Festivito]

4. But, if we go down, other democracies will fail.

And just because we have bad elements does not mean we should curtail our good elements' efforts.

[leftstreet]

6. Which ones?

:shrug:

[Festivito]

10. All of them. /nt

[Democracyinkind]

13. Joke? Ignorance? ??? nt

[Festivito]

15. Waste? Tom-foolery? ??? /nt

[Democracyinkind]

16. So Switzerland is going to become a dictatorship after the CIA takes off from here?

[Festivito]

18. Well, the Swiss don't even get hit during world wars.

If you found your goose laying golden eggs was stealing them, would you admonish your goose? No? Maybe you'll again do fine in another world war.

It would be hard to take the Swiss since you all have guns and training more so than we do. But, will other democracies fare so well without other means of being safeguarded.

I think that if the US goes down into third-world status, and we end up losing our rights, a good part of the rest of the world would pay.

As for the Swiss, you also have Karl Rove.

I hope your hearts feel well.

[Democracyinkind]

19. I agree that some "democracies" will bust w/o the US, but ALL of them?

'That was all I was tryin' to say. I know allot of countries that will be better off w/o American influence - that isn't to say that there are also a bunch - especially the more unstable, tentative democracies - who will greatly suffer from not having Uncle Sam in their back.

I guess we'll find out sooner or later, depending on how old we are now and will get.

[johnaries]

8. To be honest, "other democracies" are low on my priority list.

I'd like to save this one, first. Then we can worry about the others. I'm not saying we should ignore them or not show compassion. I'd just like to set some priorities. And I think we can do our job best by "leading by example". That seems to work so much better than hypocrisy, don't you think?

[Festivito]

11. It's just my view on why we're a target.

If we go away, the rest of the world is more easily subdued.

For myself, I've not seen us as policeman. Perhaps policeman to you would be imperialist to me, and imperialist we are due to our out-of-control CIA, and that needs to be stopped.

Our current problems are worldwide and we need to approach it from a lot of angles. And that will bring us some entanglements.

I think we need to entangle. I think that's where we might differ.

[hunter]

5. We're the crazy ass neighbor sitting on his front porch with a shotgun.

Sometimes people get shot and it ain't always them that provoked him.

There are no cops, or maybe none that'll mess with him.

[johnaries]

7. Ya know, I really wish I could argue that.....

but I really can't. I'm afraid you may have described us perfectly.

[and-justice-for-all]

9. Why do you hate Amerikastan? nt

[notesdev]

12. Hate to break it to you

but we are the most hopelessly entangled nation ever to exist on this planet

and we are the world's policeman, like it or not

me, I don't like it at all, but who can I vote for to change the situation?

[Democracyinkind]

14. That's my question. Up to now, all I found out is who NOT to vote for.

And I'm not one of those guys who's ready to dismantle the US by voting for cranks like Ron Paul in order to get a decent foreign policy.

Maybe Dennis. Hard to say. I think I'd give him a shot at it.

[Vidar]

17. As world policeman, we mirrored the very worst of cops: a corrupt, murderous bully.

[Democracyinkind]

20. Even worse: A corrupt, murderous bully who's convinced he's intrinsicaly on" the good side".

Ah, the tyranny of good intentions ... Can be just as deadly as a dictators ego ....

[Vidar]

22. Damned good point. I left out "self-righteous".

[MicaelS]

21. We should not have to be the world's policeman, but we are.

But unfortunately because of the lack of action on the part of other nations during the 1930s we ended up being so. If Europe had properly responded to Hitler the US would have never gotten involved in the European war. Instead pacifism attempted to rule the day, and we saw the consequences of those actions. Pacifism only works if your opponent is moral or relatively moral. Hitler was not moral. Neither were the Imperial Japanese. Gandhi would have lasted five minutes against either one.

Even today many nations refuse to get actively involved in situations that require peace-keeping troops. Active involvement means sending THEIR military personnel in harms way. Instead they default to the same group of countries, the US, the UK, France, Canada, Australia which are current major military powers. The rest of the nations of the world are going to have to be willing to get off their asses, and be willing to bear the cost in their money and their human lives when atrocities occur. The UN can't simply sit on it's collective ass and pass resolution after resolution without actually doing something.

The harsh truth is sometimes things happen that require a military response. As long as the other nations are content to let the US and a handful of other countries risk their people's lives, instead of their own people's lives, we'll continue to be the world's policemen. They can rail against our actions but I don't see them offering their people up as a replacement. I wish we did not have to be the world's policeman, but we are.