Since
the beginning of our county we have prided ourselves in the fact that we, as
Americans, are free and been blessed with God-given rights including life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our constitution guaranties this. The
United States was the first county in modern history to exercise our form of government
successfully. Democracy is a wonderful thing, unfortunately, it is not for
everyone. Some governments may have a modified form of democracy or not at all.
One of the biggest problems our elected officials and leaders face is to have
the wisdom of when to help out in another country’s problems and knowing when
to keep to ourselves.
In
cases like the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks
on 9/11the choice seemed just and right. Defending American soil and the defense
of American lives is always important and a worthy reason for our country to
activate America’s armed forces. Unfortunately, our reasons for going to war or
to have our military participate in “police actions” may not always been as
worthy and just as some of us would like it to be.
World
War I and II both seemed like worthy causes for the United States to be
involved with. The Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War had different reasons
for fighting. During WWII Americans fought against Hitler’s army and the
Japanese Empire, however, in Korea and Vietnam it wasn’t that simple. After
WWII we began a new kind of conflict known as the Cold War. It was not necessarily
a war of bombs and bullets, although munitions were defiantly used, it was mainly
a war between democracy vs. communism, socialism vs. capitalism and them vs.
us. It began a war of conspiracy, paranoia, accusations, and fear. I joined the
U.S. Army in 1986 and we were always preparing to do battle against the
communistic forces of the Soviet Union. However, with the fall of the Berlin
Wall, it was thought that communism may also have fallen. Now, of course, our
military of today had a new enemy to prepare for, terrorists and terrorist
cells.
The
war against terrorists and terrorism is one of those wars that is fought both
in the battle field of the Mid-East and in our own back yard. Because of 9/11,
we are threatened by inspections, searches and sometimes improper “pat-downs”
in search of devises that could be used to turn a plane in to a missile. Even
though Osama Bin Laden is no longer on this Earth, in the long run he and his
network of terrorists have won the battle of the mind. It appears now, unfortunately,
that communism may be, once again, rearing its ugly head.
When
the Iron Curtain fell some of its states broke away from the Soviet Union to
create their own governments. Some did well; some weren’t so fortunate and
suffered with corrupt governments and protesting for years. Ukraine is one of
these countries struggling with trying to establish a government that will make
all of its residents happy. It is becoming quite a challenge. Ukrainian
elections have been suffering from various degrees of malpractice for the last
few years according to www.independent.co.uk.
The web site went on to say that the elections “were marked by the abuse of
state resources, lack of transparency of campaign and party financing, and the
lack of balanced media coverage”.
Last
Sunday the Russian Army moved in and took control of a badly out-numbered
military base at Perevalne. No shots were fired and www.nbcnews.com said that the Ukrainian
soldiers were feeling overwhelmed with sheer numbers, rocket propelled grenades
at the ready, and the fact that many of the people in the area are pro-Russian.
The Ukrainians just laid down their weapons.
Is
America going to help Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych fight the Russians?
That is something we will find out. Like with Syria, I believe the last thing
we need to do is help another country fight a civil war. With the national debt
over $17 trillion and growing, the cutbacks in our military going to pre-WWII
levels and the decline of the quality of our military personnel, the last thing
we need is to engage in more wars we can’t win or afford.
I
have no problem with our military fighting a just and moral battle for freedom
and democracy, however, we have been fighting long enough. It’s time we pulled
back, regrouped, lick our wounds and take care of our own. Isn’t it about time
we stopped being the world’s police and keep our noses to ourselves this time?
We have enough troubles of our own to deal with. Let’s deal with them.
Dkhummel.com,
dkhummel.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment