![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
anfalicious.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
talkpoliticsWhat is America's role in the world? I'm the first to jump on the America bashing bandwagon, so one could expect me to come up with a suitably cynical snark response to this. But I won't.
America's role in the world is to be a leader.
In most ways, America is the most powerful nation in the world. Militarily, it's not hard to think that America could fight off every other nation in the world if we all tried to invade at once. They have used this military to become the unquestioned economic and political power in the world as well. Colonial wars have been fought in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, not to rule directly, but to install governments that will allow for a favourable economic environment for US corporations. Why the hell would you want to run a country when you could just be extracting their natural resources and abuse their labour?
America has actively worked to become the leader in the world. It has been an act of conscious free will. It has been the stated aim of generations of political leaders and the desire of the electorate that votes them in. "We're #1" they cry after singing the national anthem at a "World Series" to find a the "World Champion" in a sport in which pretty much only they play in which only teams from America compete.
With great power, comes great responsibility.
Because the creation of US world supremacy has been a conscious act of free will, then the responsibilities that come along with that power are non-negotiable and must be entered into with a sense of duty, not obligation. The President of the United States has been called the "Leader Of The Free World" (and I've noticed, is still called, which I find a bit of an anachronism). The Constitution is, rightly, held up as one of the grand achievements of humanity. Americans like to believe that the ethics and values of their nation, that all men are created equal, that we have the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If this is so, then their act of conscious free will to become the world leaders and the responsibilities that are the duty of the power that comes with such power, then they must lead with these values in mind as well as in practice.
Acts like unilateral military action and avoiding international treaties that are in the global interest, but may be questionable for the national interest, is failing these values.
America's role in the world is to be a leader.
In most ways, America is the most powerful nation in the world. Militarily, it's not hard to think that America could fight off every other nation in the world if we all tried to invade at once. They have used this military to become the unquestioned economic and political power in the world as well. Colonial wars have been fought in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, not to rule directly, but to install governments that will allow for a favourable economic environment for US corporations. Why the hell would you want to run a country when you could just be extracting their natural resources and abuse their labour?
America has actively worked to become the leader in the world. It has been an act of conscious free will. It has been the stated aim of generations of political leaders and the desire of the electorate that votes them in. "We're #1" they cry after singing the national anthem at a "World Series" to find a the "World Champion" in a sport in which pretty much only they play in which only teams from America compete.
With great power, comes great responsibility.
Because the creation of US world supremacy has been a conscious act of free will, then the responsibilities that come along with that power are non-negotiable and must be entered into with a sense of duty, not obligation. The President of the United States has been called the "Leader Of The Free World" (and I've noticed, is still called, which I find a bit of an anachronism). The Constitution is, rightly, held up as one of the grand achievements of humanity. Americans like to believe that the ethics and values of their nation, that all men are created equal, that we have the unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If this is so, then their act of conscious free will to become the world leaders and the responsibilities that are the duty of the power that comes with such power, then they must lead with these values in mind as well as in practice.
Acts like unilateral military action and avoiding international treaties that are in the global interest, but may be questionable for the national interest, is failing these values.
(no subject)
Date: 18/11/10 21:01 (UTC)When Mossadeq threatened to nationalise Irans oil the brits and americans organised a coup and replaced him with the brutal Shahs regime and western style capitalism, he was thrown out and in came the Mullahs.
In 1978/9 Afghanistan was a tourist centre, it had a university, it was modernising despite the rabid islamists and war lords who saw there power being threatened. In comes the USA arms the Mujahadeen, the ruskis leave, the USA leaves too leaving chaos behind, the Taliban take over.
Bin Ladens letter to america stated his demands, leave Saudi Arabia and ensure a just peace in Palestine, he was ignored, how possibly could america leave their proud royal family that kept the nation as america wanted it.
(no subject)
Date: 18/11/10 21:49 (UTC)Mossadeqh was also overthrown because when the USA took over Britain's role as the prime imperial power in the Middle East it found that the people there liked it no more than the British did.
Was it? I don't think a country devastated by Soviet-style warfare (war is never nice, but the Soviets kept WWII-style brutality as an integral part of their doctrine) would be a tourist destination in any sense of the term. The Russians left....to prop up a puppet regime within a whisker's breadth of winning. The fall of the USSR secured the disaster, if it lasted another year or two Afghanistan would be very different today.
(no subject)
Date: 18/11/10 22:29 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/11/10 01:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 19/11/10 14:54 (UTC)Briton 67th Tigers?
(no subject)
Date: 19/11/10 15:55 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/11/10 13:56 (UTC)Having served in Europe, the Middle East and Far east I can only conclude that this concoction has come out of your very own waffle bag
(no subject)
Date: 19/11/10 15:25 (UTC)Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'
C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Received Files\Full text bin Laden's 'letter to America' World news Observer_co_uk.mht
The source which enables you to quote from bin laden?
(no subject)
Date: 19/11/10 15:55 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/11/10 13:52 (UTC)**Text Supplied by : Muhammad A. S. Al-Mass'ari; CDLR (Committee For the Defense of Civil Rights in Saudi Arabia
From democratic Saudi Arabia WOW WOW WOW
(no subject)
Date: 20/11/10 17:04 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 20/11/10 17:39 (UTC)When your info comes from Wahabi Saudi land its end game
(no subject)
Date: 20/11/10 17:42 (UTC)