by by Luis Vega
It is understandable why the United States situates itself in the position of world police or sometimes vicious big brother only doing things in the best interest of someplace else. To a certain extent this is all clear but is what is not so clear is why the United States feels it should put itself in one place and not the other.
American Made
America has made itself readily available to certain areas such as Panama, Brazil, Grenada, and most recently the Middle East to fight the war on terrorism. Being the only superpower in the world today the United States needs to handle situations that no one else is willing to involve themselves in. Smaller nations in most cases need the assistance because small militaries may not be able to handle insurgent activities; economically the profits from their own societies are not enough to sustain themselves, or politically leaders are taking advantage of their power.
A Meddling Mood
With United States meddling into to other countries affairs it is evident that foreign interest creates foreign policy for example military intervention which can work both positively and negatively. Military intervention can lead to stabilization of a dangerous area, or it could bring about a puppet government controlled by the United States which could ultimately lead to revolutionary activity by the people of that nation.
One example of where the United States has submerged itself, and why it is so important is the Dominican Republic. The reason why the Dominican Republic is so important is because of its strategic location. It is between Puerto Rico and Cuba. The United States values the Dominican Republic’s democratic stability because of rising insurgency in Haiti and its close proximity to Cuba. Although it may sound like the United States is working in the Dominican Republic’s best interest, and in some ways it may be but what is not glorified by the United States is the many instances that they have intervened in the Dominican Republics politics and the economic control that the United States has tried to sustain.
The United States also knows that is has a leg up on the Dominican Republic because it knows that if the Dominican Republic wants to continue to send migrants into the United States it will play nice and adhere to special regulations made by the United States.
Politics Follow
Where the United States goes its politics follow, and it is very careful of what kind of situations it involves itself in. The United States will see an opportunity and capitalize on it. This sort of thing happens whether the “other” country wants the help from the United States or not. Whether issues directly relate the United States or not officials make it directly relate.
The United States will use immigration and amount of illegal aliens coming into the United States to get leverage against certain countries. Now that terrorism plays an integral role in United States politics, of when and where the United States goes, America will be more aggressive in determining where they go. Some may argue that the United States does not play the role of world police to well, as it puts itself in one high risk area but will not put itself in other, for example the civil war in the Sudan Darfur region that has displaced over 1.5 million people and left over 75,000 for dead. This war has been going on between the Janjaweed Arab militia, and the black Sudanese even before the war on terror was existent to the United States.
Conclusion
The question is if the United States has been involved in Iraq to instill democracy why has it not been involved in Africa in the Sudan to instill democracy? Although not exactly the same the situation is very similar, how come value has not been placed on the lives of the Sudanese blacks?
Where and why the United States becomes militarily involved is a question that has yet to be answered. The thing that you need to ask yourself as an American is for what reason is the United States is involved in Iraq but not in the Sudan, or in South Africa when apartheid was prevalent.
The answer is obvious. In the end, it’s all a game of Risk. The same playbook that the Romans used, particularly Roman proto-corporations, in places like Anatolia applies here. If you don’t have any vested interests or potential interests, or if the risks outweigh the value, then leave them to their own devices. The United States is an empire, but certainly not in the classical sense. More of a diluted version of the British Empire 100 years prior.
And terrorism has been a fantastic bogeyman since the collapse of the Soviet Union. This has been recycled throughout history ad nauseum, but the walls are collapsing. The old ways no longer fit in the evolving environment. And if civilizations do not adapt, they become victims of cultural selection. Hard to say where the United States is at, except at a crossroads.