Times change and with that change comes a new way of life. Our foreign affairs have dominated our nation's affairs since the end of World War II, sixty-two years of being a super power both in positive and negative aspects. It is time to take the policy of nation building and throw it in the trash bin of history along side colonialism. If we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina it was that things were not so great in the United States. The time has come for the United States to take a break from the rest of the world and help the citizens of the United States and the United States alone. The United States needs a period of isolation from the world.
Isolation may seem like a difficult concept to follow in a world so integrated as the early 21st Century is. It is just difficult, not impossible. We as a country would have to adapt. At the beginning of our existence the large bodies of water protected and separated us from the Old World and the troubles that came with the Old World. Isolation lasted until our national security became threated as it did in 1917 by the Germans in the First World War.
Once peace was made in 1919, the United States returned to a period of isolation which lasted until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor would rid the ideology from United States. Instead of returning to an isolation at the end of the Second World War, the United States did the honorable thing and allow democracies to blossom in the nations destroyed by war. The United States did not come in as the conquerors but as the liberators and we continued to defend those nations threated by the oppression of Communism. Vietnam was the turning point in the good we were doing throughout the world. After the Pentagon Papers revealed the deception of the government in their explanation of the war to its citizens, the government still wanted a form of victory for our country. Even though our country isn't a human being, we are. We make mistakes and should admit them.
The Cold War that President Reagan help bring to an end was accomplished without firing a shot. The standing army remained after the Cold War, as it remained since the end of World War II.
Desert Storm was our redemption for the Vietnam War. President George H. W. Bush successfully led a coalition of nations in defeating Iraq and their invasion of Kuwait. However it was this act that al qaeda leader Osama bin Laden sites as one of the reasons for attacking us on September 11, 2001.
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 scared us into thinking that we could be attacked from a foreign enemy on our land protected by two large bodies of water which have kept us safe since 1814 when the British invaded cities in the War of 1812, including Washington D.C. The scare tactics of the Bush Administration in the lead up to the Iraq War in 2003 played on our fears of another attack. The war of choice has ruined our reputation around the world.
This writing is not about hating America or "blame America first." In fact it is the exact opposite. This needs to be said if we are to live up to what our Founding Fathers wanted. The Founding Fathers and the other big nations of the late 18th Century knew of the great power the United States would achieve in later years. However, I'm sure the Founding Fathers did not want to be a super power along the lines of the one they rebelled against.
The United States needs to admit to itself that it has a problem and needs to fix those problems, foreign and domestic. The foreign problem is over our involvement in the world with the military stationed throughout the world. We currently are fighting two wars in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Afghanistan War is the forgotten war like that of the War of 1812. This was the right action following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and President Bush finally had a united country. However, when it looked as though everything was smooth sailing and attention was diverted to a false threat, Afghanistan was an afterthought to the American people.
Instead of having our troops finish the job in Afghanistan our president sent US sons and daughters into another war. The war of choice would take our attention away from Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. September 11th is also an afterthought as Iraq turns into chaos and the reasons why we're there no longer are important because that would mean placing blame on someone. Sons and daughters of this nation should not be fighting in a foreign country where we are not wanted and all for false reasons that get portrayed as justified.
We need to find or create a new energy source and cut all dependence of the Middle East. The people of the Middle East have a lot to work out and until they ask for our help we should leave. We need to leave other parts of the world too. This is the 21st century, so isolation would be a little different than before. The country can go back to a way of life similar to the time before both world wars and experience the peace and prosperity we achieved in the 1990s all at the same time.
The period of isolation will give us a chance to make our country number one in every aspect studied by social scientists, whether that be in education, lowering or exterminating poverty, health care for all. This does not and should not be done with big government or enormous spending. The money for the military can be reduced to a level that can maintain our defense against any possible threat or national disaster and spread to where it can help make this a more perfect Union. We cannot go abroad spreading democracy and policing the world when we need to put ourselves first for once.
The government can be a friend to big business by asking them to help bring jobs back to America. The period of isolation can be a time to rebuild the American economy and make it like it was before the two world wars when one income was enough to live off of. Immigration of course would be a big part of the reform needed in the United States.
Immigration should be put on hold until we can properly regulate and secure who is coming in and out. Immigration to the United States would resume as soon as it is fixed.
The length of isolation from the world can be from ten to fifty years. Japan has gone longer, but that was in a different time. We can fix ourselves, help ourselves for the first time in a long time without being distracted by the problems of others. The period of isolation would end when we as a country are ready to enter the world as the leader it once was but without the touch of the Roman Empire. Let the leading nations of the Old World deal with the problems of that hemisphere. If a Hitler rises and we are called on by the world for assistance, we'll aide in the defiance of an oppressive regime but only if the situation is truly a dire call for aide.
Isolation in the minds of politicians today is probably not happening. Our nation has had a foreign policy of intervention and nation building for over sixty years and a new course is needed to heal our nation and return it to the glory it once had both in the hearts of its citizens and the rest of the world. Just as the Middle East isn't ready to enter the world community, neither are we. If we reverse global warming and barring any asteroid impacts, we have a long time on this planet together. Globalization or a united Earth can happen some time in the future, and the United States can lead the planet to that point after it helps itself for once.
We can end our isolation ready to be the super power more aligned with the vision of our Founding Fathers.
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