U.S. Military Aid - America Must be a Global Policeman

Should The U.S. End Overseas Military Operations? The U.S. has been sending troops to over-sea countries to aid the needy, and take certain measures to try to keep our country safe. We want to help the innocent lives, care for the civilians, and want them to be free.

...e], and no common sense seems to ever apply." (Shake Hands With the Devil, Dallaire, pp. 99-100) By the end of two months, hundreds of thousands had already been brutally slaughtered and killed. Although the United Nations could have learned from the mistakes of the Rwandan Genocide and prevented Darfur from happening, they remained more or less unresponsive to complaints and concerns. The United States were also bystanders during this whole ordeal. Perhaps as a reaction to the debacle at Mogadishu a year earlier, United States President Bill Clinton and his administration were hesitant to use military intervention in conflicts that were not in the national interest of the United States. Declassified government documents indicate the Clinton administration was aware Rwanda was being plagued by genocide in April 1994, but obscured the intel to justify their inaction.

One could begin with the issue of genocide. In 1994, between half a million and a million members of the Tutsi tribe were slaughtered by Hutu tribal militias. Even though this massacre was widely covered by the news, the United States did nothing to help stop the killing. President Clinton offered an explanation to survivors in Kilagi for this. He said that he ?did not fully appreciate the depth and the speed with which [the survivors] were being engulfed by this unimaginable terror.? (Kelly)

The Cons of U.S. Foreign Aid As time progresses humankind seeks to better itself. We strive to make life easier, faster, and more efficient. Currently we have telescopes that can see objects light years away, satellites that can track you around the planet, cars that adjust the seat and steering wheel to separate drivers, and computers that fit in your hand and perform a million calculations a second. But not everyone in this world has this technology. In parts of the world there are people who are still advancing, they are hundreds of years behind the technological leaders of this world.

“The U.S. had never intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred” (Power 3). Genocide is described as a deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group (Genocide 1). Thus stating, millions to trillions of innocent lives have been taken, including children, due to the act of genocide. America should intervene in foreign affairs, such as genocide, because of the Genocide Convention, We have a strong-based military, and it’s dangerously immoral.

The United States has a very long history of intervening within other countries, whether it is for political reasons or otherwise. U.S. intervention started along with the establishment of the United States. This long history still continues strong up until today. Although the U.S. often intervenes, the justified reasons for these interventions are often very unclear, but there are a few repeating trends. First, the idea that it is America’s responsibility to spread democracy to developing nations is a very repeated tendency. The goal of these interventions is to set up an American style government, whether the country likes it or not. The second ideal is to bring freedom and safety to the civilian population of the intervened country. Unfortunately, when the U.S. intervenes the results are less favorable to the foreign civilians than before. Two specific areas with perhaps the most muddled history of U.S. relations are Central America and the Caribbean. Many of the interventions in these areas are often failed attempts; especially the interventions that took place during the Kennedy and Reagan administrations. Specifically, in Cuba and Nicaragua, U.S. intervention has been fueled by the U.S. governments desire to keep the Soviet Union from gaining power.

During the institution and emerging years of the United States of America to present, we have witnessed some questionable acts committed by the United States. Now days the United States condemn and prosecute nations that get involved in these kinds of tyrannous practices; practices that lead the United States to become the superpower nation today. Often times American people act like if the United States had the ultimate word when it comes to morals and principles. We will go back in time to talk about the massacre and displacement of millions of Natives Americans along with the semi-extinction of their lifestyle and heritage. It is also important to look at the indentured servitude slavery to which the African people were subject to. Another example was the convenient exploitation of the foreign Chinese, Irish and Mexican labor forces and a double standard emigration policy. Lastly the use of intimidation and force for the appropriation of foreign territories such as Hawaii, Philippines. There is help of rising rebels in other countries in order to achieve United States goals. Humans are supposed to learn from past mistakes so they do not commit them again. There is a great irony in calling other governments tyrannous and then imposing our own agenda on their society. The United States have historically and presently demonstrated what could be considered “tyrannous” behavior towards other nations and societies. The United States history has a stain in every page and therefore we are not a good candidate to intervene in other nations affairs.

...hat involve the situation but also the people of the country they are dealing with, because they might cut off aid to a country because the leader of the country might be a dictator the people would have to live in poverty. (14) I think this would be the best position because everyone would benefit from the situation. (15)In the Geneva Conference the U.S should have stayed out of Indochina’s business. The Chilean Revolution they United States should have never cut off aid to Chile for the reason being that the citizens of Chile would live in poverty. In the Panama Canal the United States did the right thing because they built it and owned it for several years and then in the year 2000 it passed it to the government of Panama.(16)in conclusion the United States should keep working on being the leading country of the world and not bring anymore problems upon themselves.

What is truth? Does truth lie in the actual stories of people that experienced the atrocities of war? Or does it lie in the teachers and textbooks students are handed all around the world? Controversial historical occurrences, mainly wars, often have tens if not hundreds of different stories and sides to them. One country claims it was a civil war, while another states it was genocide. In the curriculum for history in the United States, our country is often idealized. Criticisms of the United States or talk of what the United States could have done are sparse or essentially non-existent. Samantha Power, the author of “A Problem from Hell” addresses the unspoken issues of the United States lack of involvement in genocides all around the world. During the time of the Bosnian war, neither the Bush administration nor the Clinton administration intervened to help prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displacements occurring in Bosnia.

Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once said, "We were not realizing that with just a machete, you can do a genocide." To be candid, nobody anticipated the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The genocide in Rwanda was an infamous blood-red blur in modern history where almost a million innocent people were murdered in cold blood. Members of the Tutsi tribe were systematically hacked or beaten to death by members of the Interahamwe, a militia made up of Hutu tribe members. In just 100 days, from April 6, 1994 to mid-July, 20% of Rwanda's population was killed; about 10,000 people a day. Bodies literally were strewn over city streets. Genocide obviously violates almost all articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; however, the article I find most important is Article 3 - the right to life, liberty, and personal security. In just 100 days, one million people were denied the most basic privilege granted to every human – the right to live, simply because they were born to the wrong tribe.