By Margaret Hedderman
Earlier this week, The Urchins discussed Monday night’s Presidential Debate on foreign policy. Bob Schieffer asked what each candidate thought the United States’ role is in the world. I felt that neither candidate gave a satisfactory answer in large part because this is not a prominent issue in our public discourse.
As we quickly approach Election Day, I would like to start an open conversation on what America’s role is in the world. Where and when should we intervene in other nation’s affairs? Is it our right to “defend freedom,” as Mitt Romney put it, in other countries? If so, should we step in to aid Syrian rebels? Or should we lead by example rather than military might? Is it even our place to “lead?”
Please leave your comments below. Two weeks from now, your comments will be compiled into a single post as “the people’s” foreign policy. I encourage all our international readers to contribute!
On the issue of Afghanistan. I believe we have the moral obligation to act, combat and defeat at what ever cost a culture that flogs women in the streets, stones women for alleged adultery, and attempts to murder young women for seeking an education. Bullies and thugs have to be stopped wherever they might raise their ugly heads, whether in an elementary school yard or in a foreign waste land such as Afghanistan. Intervention should not depend on the value of a countries natural resources. As a highly evolved species (of course that’s questionable), we have to do the right thing. We cannot ignore the atrocities anymore now than we did in the late 1930′s when the National Socialists were beginning their persecution or more recently in Darfur. Oh,wait a moment. We did. Our bad! As a nation, there is nothing great about us if we ignore the suffering of oppressed people in favor of our own self interests, comfort and safety.
I confess…..I haven’t spent much time considering this issue so I did a bit of research and found this site: http://www.choices.edu/resources/documents/USRole-futures_002.pdf (which I recommend to my Social Studies teacher-friends.)
My vote is for “Future #3 – Build a More Cooperative World” – but I believe the ideal approach will be an skillful compromise of aggressive leadership, alliance building and cooperation.
I’d like to see the United States be more helpful in the world. Why must we hoard the wealth and charge other nations to use resources we have in surplus? Food, medical supplies, education, etc… Likewise, I think it would go a long way to forgive some debt to nations who are working on their own democracy. The United States seems to have a thug-like mentality towards other nations in the world and I’d much rather we be helpful in general instead of extracting our perceived due.