USA Complicit in Egypt Riots

"Hey folks - OUR way or the highway!"

As I write, there are anti-government riots in Cairo, Egypt – shown live on several major news channels.  I see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in a very measured tone: “Egypt has been an important partner of the United States …”  Then, comes her delivery of the official two-faced, fork-tongued, distancing language, hoping that her government’s contribution and co-responsibility to this latest mess is not too obvious.

This is the problem at its root: the belief that our nation has the ability, if not the obligation, to “partner” with other nations.  This is fundamentally wrong.  The government of the United States of America has no constitutional authority to make alliances or set up partnerships with other countries.  This wrong-headed belief is what has given rise to much of the unrest around the globe, for decades.

The Government of the United States of America is deeply complicit in much of what is coming to a head today in North Africa and the Middle East by way of riots, bombings, and continued strife.  By “partnering” with Great Britain and other member nations in the newly-formed United Nations just after WWII, to set up the illegitimate state of Israel by ejecting and scattering property owners from their lands, incredible death and destruction have been the results.  Over the decades since 1945, meddling by the UN and its main donor parent, the USA, has made matters worse at practically every step.

For the USA, the proper approach to foreign matters is simple, and has been simple from day one.  Defend the property of American citizens, from aggression within and without.  In extreme simplified language, the Constitution could be translated and distilled into one principle: Respect others, and mind your own business!

Alas, almost from the beginning, this was too hard for the humans who represent us in Washington, D.C. to comprehend and internalize.  The theme for the 20th Century was pretty much one of poking our collective nose where it doesn’t belong.  We are reaping the “rewards” of this irrational attitude.

Paradoxically, the more the United States of America quietly did what it does best – protect and foster free enterprise and every day living among peoples of a fantastic cross-section of humanity, the most fantastically productive and marvelous society in the history of the world grew and thrived.  The USA was almost universally admired for this and envied by the citizens of many nations.

The more the Government of the United States of America loudly proclaimed that it is the policeman of the world, that it is, not just a “super power” but, the Super Power, the shift from “land of freedom and promise” to “land of excess and belligerence” quickened.  Incredibly, mainstream and middle-class Americans do not see the direct connection between their obnoxious, flag waving, uber-patriotic loyalty – to the America as Super Power paradigm – and the logical decay of our reputation, our standard of living, our sense of security … our honor.

Have the actions of the U. S. Government been the sole contributors to the madness and unrest in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc.?  Of course not.  There are countless forces at work here, from a thousand different directions, cultural, religious, economic, linguistic.  One thing is for sure though: the more we keep our (American) hands in the pot, the worse it gets.

My proposal is to unilaterally withdraw our governmental entities from all foreign lands … carefully, diplomatically, absolutely.  If we were to announce that, over a period of 10 years, all American military bases would be dissolved or turned over to the host countries, and that all USA operatives would be recalled – except, perhaps, for a minimum embassy crew (10-100 persons per country, depending on size), we would see instantaneous improvement in most, if not all, our relations. ***

The reliance of several supra-national, war-mongering corporations on our global imperialistic profile notwithstanding, Wall Street would eventually rebound due to the evolution (back) toward production of constructive products as opposed to destructive products.

*** This should not be taken to mean I advocate a pacifistic defense strategy.  The trillions of dollars saved on ending our foreign deployments and the billions of dollars that would be forthcoming from increased private investment (welcomed into newly-friendly foreign countries) would more than pay for the powerful and daunting home-based military we would still maintain – very humbly, yet very publicly.