Stumbling Towards the Precipice of History - The Ornery American
Stumbling Towards the Precipice of History
| By Wayne Jones |
April 21, 2003 |
We are fast approaching, if we have not already arrived at, a major turning point in history. Not
American history, or European history, but world history. Never before has there been one
country powerful enough to deploy forces the world over, occupy entire countries with minimal
usage of troops and material, and dominate the global economy and much of the global
marketplace of ideas. In fact, if not in name, we are an empire. There is no place on Earth that
American military power cannot be directed towards, no foe that could outright defeat us on the
battlefield (leaving out the nuclear deterrence issue, which obviously puts Russia and China on
an entirely different playing field than our other geopolitical rivals). We have, for lack of a
better word, emerged onto the world stage in the course of a mere 227 years as not simply one of
a host of powerful nations, but the most powerful nation. Rome never had nearly the
geographical reach. England had reach, but had far more sea power than land power and
couldn't simply land troops willy-nilly all over the world.
With that power, of course, comes enormous responsibility. Unprecedented responsibility, such
as we have never had to face up to before (or any other nation). How we choose to shoulder the
burden will define how we are remembered, perhaps for all time. With all of the great power we
possess, the tremendous wealth, we must set out to do great things. We must accept tasks that
only a nation of penultimate power could achieve. We must live up to our potential on the world
stage.
The Marshall Plan that we used to rebuild postwar Europe is the best model for the peace in Iraq,
if carried out correctly. But we must go beyond that. We must turn our military might into a
transformative power. There are two key regions that call most urgently for our attention. Most
obvious is the Middle East. Like it or not, we are now officially in the Middle of the East, quite
literally (look at Iraq's position relative to the other Middle-Eastern states). Second is Africa.
First and foremost, we must not shirk our duties in Iraq. We must apply every ounce of
ingenuity, every drop of determination that we have to set the stage for a democratic revolution
in Iraq, one that is inclusive of all of the various groups in the country. This is a statement of
supreme arrogance, of course. Who are we to impose our government on any other country?
But if not us, who? Saudi Arabia? We don't want them building any countries, thank you very
much. They already did a great job with Pakistan and Afghanistan (who do you think trained the
Talliban's religious leaders? We armed them, but Wahabi Islam, taught in the Saudi-funded
madrassas made them fanatics). Iran? No, not unless we want the Talliban's more conservative
uncle to take over most of the known oil reserves in the world. The U.N.? Well, sure. They can
do just like they've done in...wait, never mind. They've never done nation building, because no
self-interested nation would allow a world body to thrive that goes around building nations. The
Iraqis themselves? They obviously have to be the central players, but they need our wealth and at
the very minimum our legal expertise to develop a constitutional framework than can accompany
pluralist interests. And we owe them quite a lot, because we played a huge role in supporting
Saddam in the eighties, and now we've removed him and effectively destroyed the entire
government of Iraq. This is our problem.
Next, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No other nation has our influence over Israel, because no
other nation does as much to support them. We have to use that influence to get them back to
the table, and we must push through a viable two-state solution to the problem. This is going to
take a lot of promises to the Palestinians, of course. We're going to have to provide
infrastructure, secure loans for development, and invest in schools. And we actually have to do
it, not just promise it. Of course, the other side to that is that the Palestinians have to live up to
their end of the Oslo accords, namely removing from the PLO charter the stated goal of
destroying the state of Israel and pushing the Israelis into the sea. If they don't do that, no one
can take their professed intentions of peace seriously. We have been close to achieving this goal
before, and with the right kind of diplomatic efforts, we may get there again and finally cross the
line.
After the Middle East has to come Africa. Again, with our proxy wars against the USSR, we
have played a large role in arming the region, but not in stabilizing it. And the tremendous
benefits that this country reaped from the African slave trade are indisputable. African slaves
literally built large parts of this country. We owe that continent our very economic blood. It is
time for the U.S. to set an example by forgiving the African debt. All of it. Remove the burden
of those tremendous debt payments. That step alone will cause an enormous increase in the
abilities of the local governments to provide for their citizens. And we should make the two
most critical infrastructure improvements there are: clean water supplies, and usable roads.
Continent-wide. Seriously. I am not saying we should foot the whole bill. Where governments
can contribute, they must do so. But we need to facilitate, and to put our money out there if
there is no other funding. An African continent with clean, drinkable water will be healthier, and
a continent with roads connecting it all together will be more prosperous. The last step we
should take is to find some way to provide low-cost AIDS drugs to Africa. A huge portion of the
world's AIDS cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of victims there cannot afford
the expensive drug regimes that are manufactured by mostly U.S. drug companies. Given that
the U.S. patent system has a lot to do with maintaining high drug prices, our government has a
role in the affordability issue. Subsidies of the price differential between what the African
public can pay and what the drugs cost may be one solution. Another solution may be to give
tax credits to pharmaceutical companies who provide lower-cost drugs to Africa. The
devastating effect that AIDS is having on the economic and social fabric of many African
nations is obvious. Providing relief for the AIDS crisis, even only partial relief (complete relief
would require heavy sex education courses and providing condoms, which I don't see any U.S.
administration doing) will allow the African economy to stabilize, and set the stage for growth.
These are huge, bold steps I am proposing, and expensive ones, politically and monetarily. I am
not saying that in all of theses cases we should help strictly based on a moral obligation (even
though we have great moral obligations in both regions). We should help because we can help.
What are we accumulating all this wealth for, as the world's richest country, if we're not going to
do anything with it more worthwhile than buying bigger houses, fancier cars and more expensive
clothes? A lot of the wealth that we accumulate as a nation and as individuals is made possible
because of low wages in other countries, and cheap extraction of resources abroad. We benefit
from the world, and we must give something meaningful back. If we fail in these endeavors
because the jobs I have set forth are not possible, then so be it. But if we fail through loss of
nerve or failure of resolve, then we have failed to give back to the world as much as we have
taken. This time we simply cannot let Atlas shrug.
Copyright © 2003 by Wayne Jones
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