Republished: The Problems America Faces
This content was originally posted on benscomputer.no-ip.org 25th Sep 2007
This article is quite heavily
inspired by some of the comments over on Sasha
Abramsky's Comment is Free Blog. As many are already aware the
United States of America is non too popular across the globe, but what
has caused this? Many (I'll admit not all) of the Americans I have
met/spoken to have been perfectly nice, yet the US is hated all across
the globe.
The question is why? The obvious response (and one given by many
Americans) is that the current administration is responsible for the
lack of respect across the globe. How much of this is true is
debatable, but very few people would argue that current US foreign
policy raises peoples hackles.
The simple fact is that America acts as though it exists to enforce
it's beliefs onto other people. Whether through military force or
through whining to the World Trade Organisation about piracy. The issue
is that America's beliefs have been corrupted by a Capitalistic
attitude, many of America's actions appear to be influenced by
corporate will.
Very few countries are willing to change their laws
simply to please American businesses. Certainly very few would be
willing to see the US in control of all the worlds oil interests, but
for the time being the US will continue to act as it see's fits,
regardless of the beliefs of it's own citizens.
Unfortunately the one thing that looks set to prevent the US from
continuing to act in this way will also penalise it's citizens for
being USians, the US's economy (and I might add the British Economy)
appears to be teetering a little, and could be on the edge of a major
recession. The US is spending a vast amount of funding on wars around
the globe, and both the drop in value of the dollar and the countries
foreign policies are leading to companies leaving US soil. The more of
these companies decide to trade under the Euro or some other currency
the more the value of the Dollar will decline. The citizens of the US
will feel the crunch before their government do, however eventually the
Government are likely to find that their power is declining, and some
new power will step into it's place. Many have suggested that this
power will in fact be China.
Regardless of how you feel about 'superpowers' there will always be
one, the assumption that it will always be the U.S.A is incredibly
naive.
Whilst I cannot defend the deaths of the innocent citizens on September
the 11th, the countries foreign policy is at least partially
responsible. The fact that the response was to take civillian lives is
completely unforgiveable, however the US Government did play its part
in shaping the fate of those who died. For quite a while now the US
government has been meddling in the middle east, and unfortunately it's
citizens and tax-payers are paying the price.
Regardless of your views on whether the war is just or not, there are
deaths happening over there. Both civillian and military, and whilst
our propoganda friendly television stations paint a nicer picture, the
fact is that the 'rebels' are not the only ones taking lives. Iraqi's
are also being killed, and not just by other Iraqi's. Any loss of live
will only serve to make people angry, whether it is Patriotic Americans
mourning the loss of their countrymen, or whether it is an Iraqi father
mourning the loss of his 12 year old son to friendly fire.
The sad fact is that the fallout from the Iraq war is being felt all
around the world, and not just through acts of Terrorism.
Throughout the world there are signs of racial unrest within
communities, people of Arabic descent are being attacked
purely fo their colour. Many of them are not even Iraqi, racism appears
not to discriminate between Iraqi's, Iranians, Persian or Syrians. The
racial fallout that could occur due to the occupation of Iraq could
last for decades and will undoubtedly needlessly claim many lives.
Whilst all of this does present a serious problem, it is important to
understand that knee-jerk anti-americanism is not right. Whilst the
current Administration (and most of the recent Administrations) have
done some atrocious things in the name of capitalism, it is not
necessarily the will of the US Citizens. Many will argue that the Bush
Administration was voted in, but then so was Blair. It is more than
possible for the majority of the country to not want Blair in, but if
they do not agree on who should take his place the minority that want
Labour in power could amount to more than the divided majority. The
same is also possible in the US, the advent of the Internet also means
that many US Citizens are becoming increasingly aware of the propoganda
levied on them by their government.
I expect their will be a change within the next Ten years, whilst it
may be a case of 'Better the Devil you know' there are more than a few
people across the globe who will be glad to see the US government
humbled.