Paper

Alhamza Alaamili        

Comp 105

Jill Darling

11/20/2014

American military involvement in International Affairs

The United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world. The United States is known for having an advanced, powerful military.  Having this big and strong of a military, you would expect that it would be involved in many different affairs and wars such as the Iraq war which I’m going to focus on later on. Over the years, the United States has been criticized for using its military power to its advantage in a bad way for its benefits while hurting other countries and the world. When you have power, there will always be questions on whether you’re abusing it or not which the case here is with United States having this powerful military which is one of the reasons why a lot consider the United States to be the “police of the world.” The United States is involved in many invasions especially in the Middle East where there are always conflicts and also interests in that area of the world because of oil, geography, etc. The United State puts a lot of effort and spends a lot of money on the military to make it the way it is now. I’m very interested in this topic because I love military and most importantly, I come from Iraq which is a country that America invaded in 2003. It’s interesting to be involved with two countries who were involved in a war against each other. I lost family members such as my father as a result of the war and such examples bring up the question, Is the United States being involved in International affairs good for themselves and the rest of the world, or the opposite?

The United States being involved in international affairs always have positive and negative results no matter whether it’s the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. Over the years, the U.S. has been in many different wars because being a big country and a country that is involved in many different parts of the world for many different reasons, the United States encounters the issues whether it wants to or not because the issues are always linked to the United States in some way and also affect it. The United States developed allies and enemies by having the powerful military but is that a good thing or bad thing? A lot of people think the United States is way too involved in world issues and that they like to interfere with a lot of things even though they have nothing to do with them meanwhile, other think that the United States is basically the “protector” of the world because it always tries to keep the world safe and is the first there to face any challenges that could affect it or the world as a whole. In A Stupid and Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq, 2001-2007, Greeley said,” The United States think they can do whatever they want because of their power and influence which is sad but true.” (Greeley 113).How involved should the United States be in International affairs? That question will always come up since it’s always involved and it could be too late for that to change.

For a long time, the United States tried to stay away from international affairs especially when they put the foreign policy and tried to use isolationism as the solution to stay away from being involved in international wars and conflicts. The United States stayed away from war but that quickly changed when it got involved in World War I and World War II, where a lot of people believed it used its powers for good. The United States were big in the world wars especially the second one where it was basically the major power and the deciding factor in the war in many people’s eyes. When World War II started in around 1939, the United Sates decided to not get involved. As the war moved on, the United States became more involved but not really directly using its military. The United States helped its allies by giving them support and giving them military equipment which is a point to argue that that’s basically getting involved. The United States didn’t officially declare joining the war until the year of 1941 which is of course after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This war is a great example of the United State being an international leader because after joining the war, the tide shifted in the allies’ way against Germany and its allies. The United States helped end Hitler’s intervention and this was an example of the United States using its military power for good.

After that came the Vietnam War, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, and others. These were the wars that kind of made people question America’s intentions by using its military. Even American started thinking that even if we’re doing good for the world, we needed to stop and focus on our country first because we have our own problems instead of focusing on helping other countries and areas of the world solve their problems but the other question was whether the United States were invading countries to actually help the world or just to benefit itself by going after its own corrupt interests in these areas of the world such as the Middle East where the U.S. could take advantage.

            Over the years, the government and media have been able to convince the people based on the agenda of getting the public support to give the government the green light to intervene other countries and start other wars in the excuse of the wars being the best option for the country and its people while also benefiting the world and the people of the countries we’re invading. These wars especially lately in the Middle East which was always there even since the early 90s were always controlled by the media in convincing the people that it was the right thing to do. In 2001 after 9/11, the government and the media convinced or should I say “brainwashed” people to believing that invading Afghanistan because Osama Bin Laden was there was the right thing to do because he was believed to be responsible for the attacks of 9/11. The Afghanistan war was understandable because of the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the attacks of 9/11 but then comes Iraq. In 2003, the United States decided to invade Iraq for multiple reasons. America wanted to invade Iraq because they thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq had links to 9/11, Saddam Hussein being a dictator and associated with terrorist groups, and other. Looking at these reason, people were quickly convinced that these were the true reasons of the war because that was all they heard from the government and the media which was there to try to get this through people so they can support the war. Were these really the reasons? A lot of people were against the war because of many reasons. People thought even if these reasons were true, they weren’t enough to invade a country and destabilize it doing so but other people thought that these reasons were not true to begin with and that the United States wanted to invade Iraq because of natural resources such as oil and also because Iraq was gaining power in the Middle East. Both sides of the arguments felt convincing but again, the media and government were able to convince people of the reasons why we should go to war and the people followed without really knowing and understanding the reasons behind the war. This brought another questioning use of military to invade a country and take the soldiers to fight another war overseas based on false pretenses. The problem that we still face today is that people are simply not aware of what is going on in this world. The awareness is increasing but still lacking because some people just believe everything they see and hear from the government and the media.

            There are so many questions regarding international affairs that the US military gets involved in which makes hard to know where to even start. If the reason to invade Iraq or example was to bring democracy to that country, do we have the right to do that? But at the same time, is that why we’re going there to begin with? The point is that we as people are lacking the power to decide whether we should or should not interfere with the outside world. This is a social problem because it keeps happening and people don’t react to it. As people of this country and citizens, we deserve to know why we’re entering a war for example and be showed the truth instead of being left confused. It’s also a responsibility as a citizen to know what’s going on in the world and whether we should and should not interfere. The United States can’t always be involved in international affairs because we’re not the perfect country even if we might seem like it. We have our own issues that we need to solve which is if the military being involved in international affairs is actually because they want to protect the country and spread peace to the world. In the other case, if our soldiers are fighting for a specific propaganda to benefit the interest of the country while hurt others, then we need to wake up and not let that happen because a lot of innocent people are dying from the involved countries which is not worth it.

            I lived in Iraq and the United State so I seen both point of views. People in the Middle East and especially Iraq looked at the United State as a savior from the regime of Saddam Hussein dictatorship but then after it seemed like Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, wasn’t linked to 9/11 or terrorist groups, and conspiracy theories started popping up that the United State came from oil, the Iraqi people started looking at as an invasion rather than the military entering Iraq to give people freedom and democracy. This shows how risky military involvement in international affairs can be, and represent the old saying “Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.” The United States were looked at as saviors but then started being looked at as enemies and in that case. You never want to be enemies with anyone, anywhere.

            We look at ourselves to be a force for good but at the same time, at what cost. You can argue whether our country does this for good reasons or bad reasons but can’t deny the impact we have internationally. Staying away from the bad side, our army, navy, air force, etc. helped a lot countries overcome adversity and helped them in challenges they faced within their countries such as helping innocent people against extreme terrorist groups or even countries that were and are being challenged by groups who want to take over the country such as ISIS where we’re helping the Iraqi government against ISIS and also helping the innocent people who were hurt by ISIS. These are examples that shows what makes our country great because we care for others and use our military power for good.

            Do we have the right to do it even if it was for good? We might be doing it for good reasons but what gives us the right to punish other people or help other people? This is the problem of being a super power. Being involved in international affairs also takes a lot of money and man power to do so. Why spend all that on other countries while we can help improve our own? According to Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Stats show that the United States has a budget of about 700 billion dollars for military spending. We spend more money than any other country on military because we’re involved more than any other country in these affairs. Having this big budget for military while our education and economy suffer should matter to people. It’s the issue that people don’t take action seeing that our government spends too much money on things that don’t really help the American people but in other ways, hurt them.

            The United States being militarily active and involved in international affairs will always bring questions. Having a great military is always both a blessing and a curse. Some people believe the military is used for good and to benefit the United State and also the world. Other people think the military involvement in international affairs is mostly happening because of the United State looking only after its interests while abusing its power and hurting others. Everyone will always have an opinion on this because we all have different point of views whether we’re Americans or people in other countries impacted by the involvement of the military. We spend too much time and money helping others while we need to help ourselves. Also, we as people, need to always know the truth before supporting any side and being led while being blind.