About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 12/08/2009 11:37:40

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,456th day in Iraq.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4367
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4228
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3904
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3508
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 139

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 325
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 932
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 603
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,395
Journalists - Iraq: 335
Academics Killed - Iraq: 431


We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 940, 375, 200, 000 .00


And so it was 68 years ago this morning, Pearl Harbor was in flames, Wake Island and the Philippines were under attack, and we were at war.



Strangely enough, perhaps the attack on Pearl Harbor united these United States like never before or since. In the two years that Germany was running rampant in Europe, America stood on the sidelines, tentatively helping out Great Britain, but not really getting involved.

Remember "America First" from the Republican campaign last year? 70 years ago, there was the America First Committee, that was entirely opposed to US involvement in what was then a European war. Of course, they turned out to be anti-semitic, but you can't win them all.

In any case, all opposition to US involvement ended when the first bombs fell on Oahu, and you know the final outcome.

That's why I find it interesting that some recent news stories and a handful of polls have found a rising tide of isolationism among Americans.


A new opinion poll shows the American public growing more isolationist, less supportive of U.S. missions abroad, less certain of American clout on the world stage and more concerned about rising economic powers like China. Analysts say the survey numbers present a challenge for President Barack Obama as he tries to rally the nation in support of a troop surge in Afghanistan.

Isolationist sentiment is on the rise in the United States, according to a poll conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Forty-nine percent of Americans, the survey says, believe the United States should "mind its own business" and let other nations get along on their own. That is up from 30 percent in 2002.

"The American public is focused on a bad economy and also feeling badly about the world," said Pew President Andrew Kohut. "There are two wars that the public thinks are not going well [Iraq and Afghanistan]."

Rising isolationism does not surprise Council on Foreign Relations Studies director James Lindsay.

"When the economy dips, so does the public's enthusiasm for activity abroad," he said. "The public understandably wants its politicians to worry about fixing problems at home and is less worried about fixing problems overseas."

Lindsay says a growing preoccupation with domestic concerns has implications for U.S. foreign policy in general and President Obama's new Afghan war strategy, in particular.

"The president is sailing into a stiff wind," added Lindsay.

Recent public opinion surveys have shown declining support for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The Pew poll, conducted before President Obama's Afghan strategy announcement this week, shows only 32 percent backing for an expanded U.S. military mission.

Kohut says Americans are increasingly skeptical about U.S. intervention abroad.

"We had eight years of an assertive national foreign policy [under former President George W. Bush]. And that foreign policy, in the end, was judged to be unsuccessful," he said. "Coming away from an experience like that, it would lead some Americans to believe that we are going to play a less influential, less powerful role in the world."



Of course, staying out of the rest of the world's business used to be one of the hallmarks of US foreign policy. In 1823, President Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, which essentially told Europe to mind their own business in the Americas, and we would stay out of Europe's business on their side of the pond.

It took almost a century before a reluctant nation was led onto the world stage by President Wilson during WWI. Defeating global fascism 20 years later may have been our defining moment, and we've been meddling in international affairs ever since.

But is it really the right course?

Throughout history many nations have tried to dominate the world. Italy, Spain, England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and many more....all have failed and suffered huge economic loss and destruction while doing so.

America stands on another precipice today. The tide might be turning, but is it turning fast enough to prevent us from falling off the cliff and becoming just another footnote in history?



 

36 comments (Latest Comment: 12/09/2009 01:07:19 by Scoopster)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati