As a concerned citizen I think it is time for the United States to stop trying to save the world and start to save itself. Saving the world is expensive and we don”t do it very well. Far better we should devote the vast funds involved on our own country.
A lot of citizens don”t recognize how fortunate we are in our heritage. In our beginning we were almost northwest Europeans, overwhelmingly Christian with no knowledge of any other religions and mostly from places where democracy and the influence of the people governed was not unfamiliar.
When the revolution was started, it was not necessarily because of bad government, even though the colonies were treated as second class in a mercantilist British empire.
The Stamp Acts were passed by parliament with no American input, and it was this that created the slogan “no taxation without representation.” Actually, although the new taxes were reasonable and for a good purpose, colonial protection in the west, it was the non-representation that stuck in the craw and showed the colonials where they stood. Seems to me that it is this same lack of representation that is fueling the present mid-east protests.
We are a country that is the result of popular discontent and revolution. We firmly believe that people have the right to govern themselves and think people should be responsible to solve their own problems.
We Americans may not always like the outcome, but the concept is correct. Much of our confusion comes from our presumption that all people have the values as we do with respect to democracy. They don”t. We do not understand some people”s adherence to 12th century cultural values and the role of women in that culture. We don”t do tribalism. Violent sectarianism baffles us.
We have the strange belief that corruption is wrong, not a way of life. The practice of suicide bombings is beyond belief. We have managed to remove the unifying force that kept the three distinct portions of Iraq at bay and are active participants in the Afghan civil war, neither side of which seems to like us much or to agree with the democracy we are promoting. It is hard for me to understand the lack of knowledge and thinking that has gotten us to these situations.
True, there may be some nastiness when we leave, but I think it is time to withdraw all the American and NATO troops much sooner than presently scheduled and let our clients solve their own problems according to their own cultures and values.
We know that terrorism is likely to always be with us regardless of our horribly expensive overseas adventures, so let”s get on with it.
It may not be a popular thought, but given our American view of freedom and independence, deep down if the Iranian and U.S. roles were reversed, I suspect we might react the same way as the Iranians at being pushed around.
I don”t agree with the specifics, but I can empathize.
So again, let”s stop trying to solve the world”s political problems. Let the people decide. It may not be the way we would like it but it will be the people”s decision, which is the key to our form of democracy even though it can be painful at times.
Guthrie “Guff” Worth
Lakeport
