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American |
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America
became fully engaged with the world only reluctantly. Actually, the
world engaged America and we responded. Our deep isolationist sleep
ended on December 7, 1941, when sirens wailed in Pearl Harbor. We were
then summoned to protect our national interests. Barely two weeks later,
Nazi Germany declared war on us for waging war against its Axis Ally,
Imperial Japan. Within the space of 11 days, we were challenged across
the Pacific into Asia, and across the Atlantic into Europe, Africa, and
the Middle East. When the great wars ended, we were the last nation
standing that was stronger than when the conflagrations began. A new
world order had been born. The
missionary, redeeming spirit of America was roused. We poured our wealth
into rebuilding the very nations we had destroyed, leaving democracy and
free-market capitalism as our legacy so that the vanquished could become
self-sufficient. We sought to bind ourselves and all others into a
common family through the United Nations, so that such wars could not
occur in the future. We hoped we could return to our pre-war days of
self-centered isolationism, having fixed the world’s troubles. Though
our intentions were noble, the world was still troubled and darkness
covered large portions. Communism
was in ascendancy, its mortal enemy, Nazi Germany, now vanquished and
opportunity abounding in the vacuum left by the economic collapse of the
European colonial powers. Spurred aggressively by the Soviet Union, it
reached across China into Southeast Asia, spread into Africa and
established a beachhead off the coast of America at Cuba, from where it
extended its reach into South America and Latin America. Thus it was
that we had to establish and maintain alliances to defend against the
gathering threat, deepening and extending our influence and engagement
around the globe. Our
strategic policy was to contain the menace and seek to build regional
alliances (NATO, SEATO, ANZUS), anchored by American policy and tethered
to our financial and military support that would enable each participant
to remain free from the intimidation and influence of communism. Our
resolve would be tested in the early 50’s in Korea, though we would
sit idle and abandon the desperate, freedom-seeking people of Hungary,
who sought to implant democracy, but were brutally crushed in 1956 by
Soviet forces. The continuing test would continue, rising in Cuba in
1962, then manifesting in Vietnam a year later. America responded to
both, though the latter drew the nation into a 10 years’ commitment of
blood (58,000) and treasure that would culminate in withdrawal and then
defeat of the abandoned ally, South Vietnam. Following
the disaster of Vietnam, America turned inward. The Soviet Union was
economically exhausted, but still voracious and anxious to exploit the
perceived weakness of America. Others also sensed opportunity in our
Asian distraction. War in the Mideast erupted as Soviet-financed proxy
states attacked Israel in 1967 and, again, in 1973. Oil-producing,
Arab-dominated nations formed a cartel, OPEC, that would bring western,
pro-Israel nations to their knees, economically, in 1974, and virtually
emasculate oil-dependent Europe. Iran
exploded as the Ayatollah Khomeini returned in 1978 and launched a
revolution, ousting the pro-West Shah and seizing American hostages. The
Ayatollah would seek to use vast, American armaments, previously given
to the Shah, to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq,
which was dominated by an Islamic faction (Sunni) that was hostile to
the dominant faction in Iran (Sh’ia). A bloody, eight (8) years war of
attrition would follow as America supported Iraq against its new
regional rival. In
1980, the Soviets would seize Afghanistan and seek to further extend its
influence in the Middle East and thereby grasp the throat of the oil
supply upon which so many of the industrialized, western nations
depended. Beset around the globe, the once preeminent America was now on
the run or in retreat in all theatres of engagement. A new generation in
Europe, totally dependent on American protection from the Soviet threat,
protested against the U.S. military presence.
Americans
chose a new direction with a more determined and aggressive approach to
the global challenges, electing Ronald Reagan, whose message was more
hopeful though the threats were still dangerous as ever. NATO was
reinvigorated and the pressure on the Soviets was increased to the
breaking point as the U.S.S.R. faced economic collapse seeking to
contend with American military technological advances. The Soviet Union
would collapse in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. It would dissolve 2
years later. Just
when congressional free-spenders were excited about the ‘peace
dividend’ following the end of the Cold War, Iraq invaded Kuwait and
threatened the world’s largest oil supplier, Saudi Arabia. America was
drawn, again, into a deeper involvement in the Middle East, which it had
previously sought to avoid. Thus began the 12 years cycle of warfare
with Iraq, beginning with the ouster of the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991,
followed by inept UN enforcement, and the final conquest and removal of
Hussein in 2003. Throughout
the last 25 years, sparked by the triumphal return of the Ayatollah to
Iran, and the resurrection of militant Islam, there has been a new,
growing threat not just to America, but to all non-Islam’s in the
world. America is the principal threat and the deadly strike on
September 11, 2001, was a rousing, wake-up to this reality. Now we are
engaged in a high-stakes encounter in Iraq, seeking, for the first time,
to implant democracy and western-style freedom in a nation and amidst a
people that has customs and a culture last modified in the Seventh
Century. It is uncertain whether this can be done successfully and in a
lasting manner, but the alternative is grim. We
desperately want to return home, to shed the worries of the world, and
to seek the light in the comfort of our homes. We seek no gain in these
foreign adventures. We question whether the effort is worth the blood
and expense. Debate rages at home and divides our nation as bitterly as
ever. We are forced to ask whether we are called to engage the world
from pride, our whether this is a service that is divinely-charged and
missionary. We
dare not admit the latter, but it is fair to ask whether America has
been so blessed because the Divine Power sought to allow us, alone, to
share such bounty, or whether the blessings and power have been loaned
so that we might share them around the globe. We wonder why so many
others whom we have helped during the last century will not undertake
some measure of responsibility for helping to carry this burden. It is
very tempting to come home, for we are all weary, and bring our lamp
with us, and cover it so none others may see the light. |
