Sep 22 2008
A poor man’s case for isolationism
In today’s post I wanted to take it back to the old days. Pre-World War Two days. In that time of world turmoil U.S. citizens thanked god for the Atlantic ocean and thus the separation that we had with other countries. The word for this ideal was “Isolationism.”
Fast forward to today. Russia is essentially telling us to mind our own business and they’ll mind theirs. North Korea is backing down from their earlier agreement to disarm their nuclear capabilities. Iran is closing in on nuclear capabilities and has shown no signs of stopping. Pakistani soldiers, supposedly our allies, fired on a U.S. helicopter that crossed the Afghanistan border. On top of it the taxpayers are funding two wars on two fronts. These are just some of the problems going on outside of the states. Inside, things aren’t going all that great either. Indeed these are troubled times.
After World War Two the U.S. made a promise that genocide like the holocaust wouldn’t happen again. Since then we have been at war in some corner of the globe almost every century. Is it really our responsibility to monitor the entire world? How can we afford to keep doing this at the expense of our own citizens?
Selfish? Yes, incredibly. Good for the American people? Yes. Also incredibly. Think of it as “investing in America.” If we pooled all of our funding and resources into our own country, then think of all the great things we’d be able to accomplish.
Back in those days America was known as the land of opportunity. It was a beacon of hope, a symbol of freedom for all of the world. Other countries looked up to us. Do we still hold those same values now? No, eight years of Bush foreign policy has all but shredded any integrity we had with other countries. Instead of the land of opportunity we’ve become a nation of struggling workers. Many of us just struggling to find a job.
I’d love to whole heartedly agree with the application of that sentiment. I have that sentiment. I just don’t think the rest of the world would be willing to sit around and wait for us until we felt like we were ready to come out and play again. Can you imagine either candidate saying, “Hang on, (fill in the name of a hostile nation), we’ll be with you sometime in the next twenty or thirty years, provided China doesn’t come by asking for it’s money back. You understand, right?”
I’d love to see it, but sadly I most likely won’t in my lifetime.
Oh I hear you that it won’t happen… Hence the title “poor man’s case for isolationism.” It’d be damn nice if it was an option though. Aside from a revolution, I’d put more money on us seeing a new world order than seeing the U.S. go back to isolation.
I have a feeling that between you, me, and bill, we’ll do plenty of fact-checking on behalf of our new Texan friend.
I was two minutes behind you on the jesus freak’s post.
Sadly, with the way our economy is set up these days this is not possible. The free-trade capitalistic society we live in will not allow us to just sit around and not pay attention to the “corners” of the world. But by God I wish it was possible for Iraq to pay us back with 20 years of free oil. Cause God know’s our troops and tax payers deserve it.
Man you aint lying if our forefathers saw the way were getting ass fucked by our government on a day to day basis they would think were the biggest bunch of pussies with no RudeDudes in sight….RudeDude Revolution…..
We’re so invested in the rest of the world’s economy that if we just shut down the world might collapse otherwise move somewhere else. Ya know what I mean?
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