I have lost count of the number of draft attempts I have made regarding the piece that follows. This blog entry has been a particularly vexing article to put into words. Largely this is the result of a fundamental flaw in how I laid out the foundation for this. My intent originally was to persuade my fellow citizens to support the correct path. This intention led to nothing but frustration on my part.
The more I immersed myself in the views of Mr and Mrs John Q Public in an attempt to provide a good persuasive analysis the more vexed I have become. This immersion has led me to abandon all hope for my original premise. I have been forced to conclude that no amount of logic, reason, or cogent persuasion will yield the result I am looking for here. And given that Russia just made the whole thing moot with their strategic arms seclusion offer, abandoning the premise just seems right.
The immersive effort I made did allow me to arrive at a few simple conclusions that I feel compelled to share here.
-Much to my chagrin, the American people have firmly embrace once again our fundamental flaw; isolationism.
-The American people, notorious for our short memory, have forgotten the lessons we learned at great cost in regard to our lack of engagement.
-The American people are poor students, even when it comes to learning crucial lessons from our own history.
-The American people lack the will to be actively engaged in world affairs. The current excuse is war weariness, but given that this is a consistent theme in our history, I am compelled to fervently believe the problem is much deeper and more fundamental.
These conclusions force me to pen the following open letter...
To My Fellow Americans,
Are you kidding me? Come one man... Is the response, it's none of our business, really the best we can do? A nation with a track record for murdering its own people just used chemical weapons on its own people, killing thousands. And your response is to firmly demand we remain on the sidelines. I get that you are tired. I get that we are winding down our involvement in Afghanistan and you wanted to enjoy peace for awhile. That is not how the world works. You know that.
Did 9/11 teach you nothing? When we are not engaged in the world actively eventually the horrors being visited on others around the world come here. If we had been actively engaged in the fight against Al Qaeda at any point, with the full force of American Power it is likely that 9/11 never would have happened.
And now looking at the horrors being visited upon innocent civilians in Syria somehow doesn't move you. Why is that exactly? Is it because it is halfway around the world, or is it because it doesn't have any bearing on the price of anything you purchase? Are we really only motivated by our own craven self-interest?
What message does your insistence for American isolationism send to the despots and tyrants the world over? Does that make them more amenable to the cause of human rights and freedom for their populations or less? Does it make the use of weapons of mass destruction more or less likely in the future?
I would tell you to wake up, but I am convinced that is asking too much.
The more I immersed myself in the views of Mr and Mrs John Q Public in an attempt to provide a good persuasive analysis the more vexed I have become. This immersion has led me to abandon all hope for my original premise. I have been forced to conclude that no amount of logic, reason, or cogent persuasion will yield the result I am looking for here. And given that Russia just made the whole thing moot with their strategic arms seclusion offer, abandoning the premise just seems right.
The immersive effort I made did allow me to arrive at a few simple conclusions that I feel compelled to share here.
-Much to my chagrin, the American people have firmly embrace once again our fundamental flaw; isolationism.
-The American people, notorious for our short memory, have forgotten the lessons we learned at great cost in regard to our lack of engagement.
-The American people are poor students, even when it comes to learning crucial lessons from our own history.
-The American people lack the will to be actively engaged in world affairs. The current excuse is war weariness, but given that this is a consistent theme in our history, I am compelled to fervently believe the problem is much deeper and more fundamental.
These conclusions force me to pen the following open letter...
To My Fellow Americans,
Are you kidding me? Come one man... Is the response, it's none of our business, really the best we can do? A nation with a track record for murdering its own people just used chemical weapons on its own people, killing thousands. And your response is to firmly demand we remain on the sidelines. I get that you are tired. I get that we are winding down our involvement in Afghanistan and you wanted to enjoy peace for awhile. That is not how the world works. You know that.
Did 9/11 teach you nothing? When we are not engaged in the world actively eventually the horrors being visited on others around the world come here. If we had been actively engaged in the fight against Al Qaeda at any point, with the full force of American Power it is likely that 9/11 never would have happened.
And now looking at the horrors being visited upon innocent civilians in Syria somehow doesn't move you. Why is that exactly? Is it because it is halfway around the world, or is it because it doesn't have any bearing on the price of anything you purchase? Are we really only motivated by our own craven self-interest?
What message does your insistence for American isolationism send to the despots and tyrants the world over? Does that make them more amenable to the cause of human rights and freedom for their populations or less? Does it make the use of weapons of mass destruction more or less likely in the future?
I would tell you to wake up, but I am convinced that is asking too much.
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