America's Long-term National Security
The events of September 11, 2001 signaled a dramatic change in policy and thinking for both the American public and our elected government officials. The thousands of lives lost on that eventful day served as a chilling reminder to our own vulnerability as a nation, and as a people. The US government set out on a policy of prevention, vowing to never again allow such a horrific loss of life on our shores.
However, much of America’s subsequent policy has not been based on rationality, or objective facts. Instead, our post-9/11 period has been turned into a circus of jingoism, military expansion, and fear.
The American people were brought into a war in Iraq based not on logic, but of fear. Our leaders stood before us, exclaiming that Saddam Hussein poised a direct threat to American security, that his government had direct connections with acting members within al-Qaeda, and that the monumental “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were simply waiting to be funneled into deadly hands. Without immediate American intervention, we were told, we as a nation were simply waiting idly by for the next great catastrophe to strike.
Of course, all of this would later turn out to be utter nonsense. With well over $800 billion spent directly on the war between 2003-2010 (not including the estimated hundreds of billions still being spent on lasting repercussions), the American people were and are still forced to pay the burden of a war that was not only based on false claims, but one which completely destabilized an entire region of the vulnerable middle east (a situation with increasingly dire consequences, played out in dramatic detail day-by-day).
Similarly, recent events in Eastern Europe have brought forth a new great fear (albeit, actually a much recycled old anxiety). The ongoing vilification of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while to much a degree justifiable, has had little to do with improving global safety and security, and much to do with terrifying the public into spending money on bloated and unnecessary weapons systems (a win for the pocketbooks of major military contractors). In a bid to gain power through expanding territorial control, the US has once again reclaimed the age-old policy of creating its own villains, and over-hyping concerns for its own political and financial interests.
Fear – it is the timeless human emotion, embedded deep within our DNA, which can lead toward the replacement of rationale thought with irrational action. We, as a nation, cannot continue down this same road which has led to imperialistic expansion and the bankrupting of our nation. We must be willing to discard our biases and take an objective approach to studying our national security interests. We must be willing to judge our own policies abroad by the same standards we set for other nations on the global stage.
Fundamentally, we must accept that we cannot change the world’s perception of us through the barrel of a gun alone. If we wish to truthfully eradicate terrorism, than we must be willing to change the mindsets of those wishing to commit such acts. Our military, however mighty, cannot crush or destroy an idea. If we wish for the rest of the world to respect us and our rights, than we must be willing to respect them as well.
Education and understanding will be the only weapons to bring about lasting global stability. As a nation of supreme political, military, and financial power it is our responsibility to lead the world in a direction that can foster such stability.
I guarantee that if America begins to treat the world and its leaders as equals, working for mutual interests, (instead of merely its own), we can and will create a world where terrorism becomes a notion of the past. This will not happen through an eradication of “terrorists” themselves as people, but through the process of providing long-term global economic and social stability, and working for the fundamental needs of people everywhere. If fundamental needs are met, even in the harshest of environments, the desire to take violent action will dramatically diminish.
In essence, this is a policy of using “brain over brawn.” We’ve shown our muscle and used our force enough to realize that conflict and war merely spawns more conflict and war. It’s time we move toward a new path of lasting security and stability; the sustainability of our nation and our world fundamentally depend upon it.