As a veteran of the United States Navy, I follow all the situations my country gets into with other nations with great interest. I often wonder, as do many of you, who appointed us to be the "guardians of peace," and the "world's police force," when it seems we have plenty of problems to solve here on our own soil.
I'll admit that in the early 20th century, we tried to keep our noses out of the affairs of other nations twice: 1914-1918 and again from 1939-1945. Both times we ended up in a world war saving most of the allies' bacon because we could out think and out produce most of the countries we found ourselves up against. We fought against tyranny and oppression. We fought to stop imperialistic aggression against nations who could not defend themselves.
After World War I, President Woodrow Wilson tried to form an organization where countries could solve their problems peacefully, called the League of Nations, unfortunately, Wilson had made Congress angry and they wouldn't allow the United States to take part in it. Without the United States as part of the League, it was nothing more than a hollow shell of war ravaged nations whom couldn't agree on anything. As a result of this, World War I was never really finished, it went through a period of peace and continued on to become World War II.
The U.S. and its allies won World War II, and we helped to form two organizations: the United Nations, a place where countries could come to try and solve their problems peacefully, and the North American Treaty Alliance, to protect the countries of the West from any further aggression (as well as protecting our trade and resources in those countries). Quickly the UN became a joke and NATO became a military alliance to face the Warsaw Pact forces of the Soviet Union.
This was the situation for a good 40 years. NATO kept the balance of terror against the Warsaw Pact, and the UN made all sorts of peaceful noises signifying nothing. Of course the UN did intervene on the behalf of South Korea, which was in danger of being overrun by the communist controlled North, (the cessation of hostilities is still held together by a truce to this day nearly 50 years after the treaty was signed -- how pathetic is that?). The UN has also shown up in places like Beirut, Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, and Bosnia to "protect the peace," (of course most of the time the UN "peacekeeping" forces get their butts kicked and have to ask for help from who else? The United States).
Now the UN had enough brains to stay out of the whole Serbian mess we have going on and since we couldn't get them to go along, the U.S. fired up NATO to go in and stop the atrocities being conducted in Kosovo. A NATO force made up of mostly U.S. Servicemen and women bombed the crap out of Serbia until they agreed to get out of Kosovo and leave those "poor ethic Albanians alone."
Now I don't agree with what I am hearing the Serbian Army has been up to, and I certainly think we should stop human rights violations from occurring. But I am of the opinion that the minute we resort to violence of any kind in response to someone else's violence, we have become no better than the people who started this mess: the Serbians.
In becoming the world's police force, we have taken on more than we could possibly chew. This world has to find better ways to solve its problems rather than resorting to force. We use force to start conflicts and use force to end them. There has to be a better way. Of course when nobody's talking and horrible things are happening, we have to take some sort of action. I think this whole thing was deliberately blown out of proportion to give us something to focus on rather than the problems we have at home.
Of course our economy is at the best its ever been and our esteemed President is the first to take credit for something he had very little to do with, its odd how no matter who does what around here, we praise or blame the President for it, most of the time he had nothing to do with it. Satirist Douglas Adams once wrote: "The job of President is not to wield power, but distract attention away from it." I think Bill Clinton is a great example of this philosophy. We have recently gotten away from the scandal of Monica Lewinsky and Bill playing cigar games in the White House, and the saddening shootings in our public schools. A nice diversion like a bombing campaign in Eastern Europe is just the ticket to get our minds off our own problems, don't you think? I wonder what our use of force in international affairs says about our love of violence in our own society, do you?
I am of the firm belief that we in the United States have it better than the people of any other country do. I also think we have assumed responsibilities that we as a nation do not agree with, but most of us are too consumed by our everyday lives to interfere with the course our government has set for us and this bothers me to now end. Of course, how much do I get involved? I'm writing this on a web site that only my 5 or so loyal fans will read. Oh well…I have fun writing these things even if nobody reads 'em. The point of all this is: why are we always putting our armed forces in harm's way for the benefit of others (and only of indirect benefit to ourselves?) When I served my country, it was my job to do what I was told without questioning whether I agreed with them (well, ok…so I did question some things) but now that I'm out, I have to say that sometimes both the political and military leaders of our country do some pretty bonehead things. We elect 'em and they pay lipservice to us and do pretty much whatever what they want to do. 'Nuff said. Signing out.
Actually, I lied. I have one more interesting piece of information for you. Way back in 1914, tensions between many of the European countries were at a near-boil. Many factors influenced the series of events that led to World War I, but one in particular really set things off. It was the assassination of the Archduke and heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary: Francis Ferdinand and his wife. The man responsible for his death was a 19-year-old named Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian who was part of a plot to free Serbia from Austria-Hungarian control. Irony? I think not.