i was reading CNN.com ... and the headlines today are "US may fight Iraq alone" .
this really really bothers me. i would feel better about this war if we had the world's support, in the form of the UN prefferably. but as the situation now stands, even Britain is posed to back away from an actual armed conflict.
this is such a bad idea for the US in the geopolitical scheme of things. many nations already resent us as the world's police force, particularly in africa and the middle east; now we are going out and regime changing, on our own because of personal vendettas with Saddam. how does that look to the world? does anybody really believe that any despot or dictator anywhere is saying, "oooh, i can't develop nukes now, because the US is gonna come out and spank me if i do"? No, what they are telling their peoples is "see? i told you the US were the bad guys. they are interfering with the rights of sovereign states to maintain arms, and it is our duty as citizens of the world to show them they don't run this show!" and since their medias are strictly controlled, this slight spin on actual events will win them major support, and set anti-americanism rolling all over the place (which is something our peacekeeping efforts were meant to keep in check).
the fact is, this just proves what the whole world feared would happen to the US foreign policy when the USSR fell. devoid of a natural enemy, the biggest kid on the block now moves to bully smaller nations, instead of protecting freedom.
there is also the fact that this is only going to stroke Saddam's ego. after all, he did manage to piss off the US enough to get us to go it alone, should we have to. that makes him, on reflection, a pretty big guy.
this also makes me nervous because there is no reason to believe Iraq won't have allies, just because we don't. and we are commiting ourselves to an action we may not be able to follow through on, against an unknown number of nations. how can we be so cocky as to believe we can win against any combination? what if we don't? what if we lose?
none of this has anything to do with 9-11. it's just the US thumping it's chest, saying, "defy my will and you shall PAY for your insolence!"
honestly, as a nation, i thought we were bigger than that.
this really really bothers me. i would feel better about this war if we had the world's support, in the form of the UN prefferably. but as the situation now stands, even Britain is posed to back away from an actual armed conflict.
this is such a bad idea for the US in the geopolitical scheme of things. many nations already resent us as the world's police force, particularly in africa and the middle east; now we are going out and regime changing, on our own because of personal vendettas with Saddam. how does that look to the world? does anybody really believe that any despot or dictator anywhere is saying, "oooh, i can't develop nukes now, because the US is gonna come out and spank me if i do"? No, what they are telling their peoples is "see? i told you the US were the bad guys. they are interfering with the rights of sovereign states to maintain arms, and it is our duty as citizens of the world to show them they don't run this show!" and since their medias are strictly controlled, this slight spin on actual events will win them major support, and set anti-americanism rolling all over the place (which is something our peacekeeping efforts were meant to keep in check).
the fact is, this just proves what the whole world feared would happen to the US foreign policy when the USSR fell. devoid of a natural enemy, the biggest kid on the block now moves to bully smaller nations, instead of protecting freedom.
there is also the fact that this is only going to stroke Saddam's ego. after all, he did manage to piss off the US enough to get us to go it alone, should we have to. that makes him, on reflection, a pretty big guy.
this also makes me nervous because there is no reason to believe Iraq won't have allies, just because we don't. and we are commiting ourselves to an action we may not be able to follow through on, against an unknown number of nations. how can we be so cocky as to believe we can win against any combination? what if we don't? what if we lose?
none of this has anything to do with 9-11. it's just the US thumping it's chest, saying, "defy my will and you shall PAY for your insolence!"
honestly, as a nation, i thought we were bigger than that.
hello fellow san diegan
ciao
lmh