As often as not, my views on current challenges and issues of our day are formed by my understanding of human history. In the case of today’s dialogue in America about whether or not we should once again be sending thousands of troops into places like Iraq in order to overcome the ISIS threat, several events from our world’s history significantly influence my views.
The British Empire dominated the world for hundred of years and survived until the 20th century. And yet, when faced by our American forbearers, the first 13 American colonies, who worked and fought for over 20 years to achieve their goal of freedom and independence from their overlord, the British Empire, said empire, with all of its mighty power, could not stop them.
A similar historical experience can be found within the history of the Soviet Union. In 1979, the Soviet Union, then with perhaps the second most powerful military on this earth and only a few steps behind our American power, threw it’s mighty military power into its neighboring country of Afghanistan and fought to overrun this nation for over nine years, and when the end came, the Soviet Union departed as a loser.
America had a very similar experience with its war in Vietnam. To this day, there are some in America who cannot admit that we failed in that effort, but the facts are clear. Just as other great powers like France had failed to overcome, Vietnam, we too, expended many lives and a fortune in money before finally leaving after well over a decade without a win for our effort.
It is all of the above, and more, which causes me to hope that we will not repeat our prior mistakes and send thousands of troops into the Middle East to tackle problems that require a different plan.
It is time for us to truly live by example. Let us take those billions and billions of dollars that some would spend on a war, not of response as was our involvement in World War Two, but of a preemptive concept which has failed to this day ever to work, and use our funds to make us a nation healthier and stronger within. Let us, today, adopt the communal feeling that existed in the 1940s, and work as a true and real United States Community, to lead the world, not by force, but by example. Let us truly live up to the dreams given to us by America’s forefathers and mothers.
The British Empire dominated the world for hundred of years and survived until the 20th century. And yet, when faced by our American forbearers, the first 13 American colonies, who worked and fought for over 20 years to achieve their goal of freedom and independence from their overlord, the British Empire, said empire, with all of its mighty power, could not stop them.
A similar historical experience can be found within the history of the Soviet Union. In 1979, the Soviet Union, then with perhaps the second most powerful military on this earth and only a few steps behind our American power, threw it’s mighty military power into its neighboring country of Afghanistan and fought to overrun this nation for over nine years, and when the end came, the Soviet Union departed as a loser.
America had a very similar experience with its war in Vietnam. To this day, there are some in America who cannot admit that we failed in that effort, but the facts are clear. Just as other great powers like France had failed to overcome, Vietnam, we too, expended many lives and a fortune in money before finally leaving after well over a decade without a win for our effort.
It is all of the above, and more, which causes me to hope that we will not repeat our prior mistakes and send thousands of troops into the Middle East to tackle problems that require a different plan.
It is time for us to truly live by example. Let us take those billions and billions of dollars that some would spend on a war, not of response as was our involvement in World War Two, but of a preemptive concept which has failed to this day ever to work, and use our funds to make us a nation healthier and stronger within. Let us, today, adopt the communal feeling that existed in the 1940s, and work as a true and real United States Community, to lead the world, not by force, but by example. Let us truly live up to the dreams given to us by America’s forefathers and mothers.
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