Saturday, February 9, 2013

In search of identity through Foreign Policy

Friday, February 08, 2013

There are researchers and scholars that who will state that our Nation’s Foreign Policies came of age after the Cold War. While there were some very significant Foreign Policy outcomes spawned at the end of the Cold War, our Nation’s modern day Policies were birthed at the end of World War II. Between 1945 and 1949, the United States of America had absolutely no qualms about the direction of its International and Foreign Policies. The dawn of the Nuclear Age brought about a sense of paranoia that would inevitably drive The United States into ways of thinking that came out looking a lot like Colonialism and/or expansionism. The Nation was slipping quickly into exactly the type of Country it had revolted against less than two hundred years earlier.

As Communism and Capitalism banged heads throughout the Cold War, Capitalism eventually came out on top as witnessed by the demise of the Soviet Union. There was, however, a very large menace to Capitalism that had not been corralled by the end of the Cold War. China sat by, apparently trying to stay under everyone’s radar. Oddly enough, it was China, not the Soviet Union, which drove the United States effort against the “Domino Theory” in Southeast Asia during the height of the Cold War. If there is one positive aspect of the Viet Nam War, it was indeed the fact that China could no longer annex the Indo-China Peninsula. As a result, the power brokers, the shadow “movers and shakers”, in the United States were sincere in their beliefs that the Viet Nam War was a success. It was this feeling of omnipotence that then drove the ensuing Foreign Policy of the United States. As an aside, it also drove the Military/Industrial Complex to heights never before imagined.

Where this has led the Nation through the 1970’s to present is to an overriding confidence that the rest of the World wants to be just like the United States. After all, are not immigrants tripping over one another to get into this Country in search of the “American Dream”? The question needs to be asked; what exactly is the “American Dream”? Apparently, there are two very separate “Dreams”. There is one for the proletariat, which is the one we all have had drilled into our heads since we were born. However, behind the scenes, there is another “Dream”. It is the dark, sinister, behind-the-shadows “Dream” that centers on the belief that the United States of America is the true way and that American ideals and practices should be shared with everyone; should be forced on everyone, if necessary. You think not? Just step back and take a look at our Nation’s recent History in its dealings with other sovereign Nations around the planet. Take a good look at Palestine, Bosnia, Serbia, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Take a good, long skeptical look at World events as they have unfolded in recent years. You do not have to read between the lines to see what the United States is up to.

Those two words, Expansionism and Colonialism, keep rearing their ugly heads. It is time for a change: just not the one that has been crammed down our throats. It is improbable that all our History books would be rewritten. It is more probable that the power of Social Media will set this all straight, without cloak and dagger, smoke and mirrors, and lies upon lies. In the face of reality, the Citizens of the United States of America may entertain a dose of the truth about who and what runs their lives, the life of the Nation and, through expansionism, the life of the Planet.

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