Remember in high school when everyone played the social game. Sally didn’t like Kelly. Matt bullied Joe. And rumors abound about just about everyone. It was a social game that we plaid. It had nothing to do with our education. It didn’t do much to better our position in the social structure that was to come after high school. After all, the awkward geek that I was didn’t matter after I left high school and entered the real world. I went from the bullied kid to the guy everyone went to for advice. The point is that it was all trivial posturing. This posturing from time to time would come to blows in the hallway or by the flag pole. After we bloodied each other up, the fight was over and we went our separate ways.
I didn’t start this post simply to talk about the trivialness of high school antics. The point I am making is deadly serious. Why did those in the world trade center have to die? Why should entire cities be firebombed by all sides during World War 2? Why did our parents have to go through the constant terror of not knowing if a mushroom cloud would appear over the horizon during the cold war? History is infested with unneeded human suffering at the hands of government. I am not just talking about harm inflicted by government directly on its own people. I am also talking about the way that two governments posture and play international political games for what can only be described as adolescent drama. Entire empires have been built not upon resource acquisition for the benefit of the population, but on the glory of the empire itself. Although the pretext of conquest for riches may be there, the sad truth is that it is the desire for glory that drove many empires. The riches acquired were merely a byproduct. And indeed as is true with every empire in history, the quest for glory eventually bankrupts the nation.
In modern times the adolescent games are played out not in diplomatic dispatches that take months to deliver, but on an international stage in real time. The United States imposes sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program. Russia plants a flag on the floor of the arctic in a provocation. The Iranians move war ships off the coast of the United States. None of these moves do anything to make the lives of the people of their respective countries safer of better. It saddens me that the people of the world are held hostage on a daily basis by the whims of individuals who care only to create drama for drama sake. The cold war was an example of such a situation. The people of America and Russia suffered daily with the fear of total destruction of their way of life. All for what? So world leaders on the world stage could show who had the bigger penis? And before the feminists go on about how this is simply make posturing and that if females ran the world there would be no war, I propose to you that some of the most famous female world leader were also the most brutal. And after all, it was president Obama’s female national security Team that pushed the war on Libya.
There are 14 million people who are unemployed in America. Countless billions more are starting around the world. But if you look at the suffering of those in the world, it is without exception a failure of government. Not a failure of government to provide for its people, but a failure of understanding priorities. You have nations waste billions of dollars and thousands of lives playing this international chess game. Lawmakers and commentators complain about the threat that China opposes and that it would be a shame for them to surpass us economically. But their progress is that we should be pushing for. After all a capitalist China which is what it really has become, will have too large an interest in staying trading partners that it will never challenge us militarily. But none of this matters. Instead we posture. We make them our advisories. We worry about the size and influence of their military while we squander our military resources around the world proving we still got it.
It seems that the game nations play with each other serve no real purpose. I do believe that a nation has a right to protect its people. But if Iran’s nuclear program is so dangerous, let’s just take it out and be done with it. Screw what others say about our actions. Instead we play this chess game. Imagine the size and power of our military if we used the $1 trillion used to fight the war in Iraq, to actually modernize our military. I believe that we should have an unmatched military that can handle any threat quickly and without question as to the outcome. Instead we weaken our military by babysitting this empire we maintain. We are spread thin and our nation security is threatened. And I ask again, all for what? I am not an isolationist. The opposite is true. I believe that we should use our military as a deterrent. The nations of the world should realize we are not going to play that game. If they what to harm our people we will respond with the most awesome power ever wielded by any nation. But if you wish to be friends and trade, we are open for business.
Instead of a policy of friendship and commerce, we treat our greatest trading partner as an enemy. We overfly China’s airspace with spy planes. We keep inventory of their military development. We fear a spacefaring China. None if this works to make America more prosperous. And all of this will inevitably end in the loss of liberty for our citizens. Just look at what has happened in the name of safety in our airlines and trains. We pay half of our income to keep feeding this childish international game. Instead of demanding a more aggressive foreign policy, we should be demanding a foreign policy that actually works to make us safer form the games that the rest of the world plays. We should be a different nation. Not a nation that is a government supported by its people, but a people who have set up a government for its protection and that serves to protect their rights. We should strive to be a different nation. We should be a nation that views the right to life, liberty and property as essential for human development. We should not be a nation that believes that nationalistic glory is a priority of the state.