When it comes right down to it, the United States of America, in its government’s foreign policy just as in its popular culture, is a country that for the most part never really knows what the fuck it wants. Like the fads that are rapidly rotated through American media, the definition of what qualifies for the nation’s international alliance as well as aid to other nations seems to change directions with the wind, seemingly day by day.
Today is no different than the past for U.S. foreign policy, or at least for its more aggressive tendencies. It would be an amusing and thought provoking work of satire as a novel or film, but unfortunately it’s all too real, and not quite as entertaining or escapist if one contemplates the circumstances with any considerable level of thought. Here are the citizens of a number of nations, chiefly in the Middle East and Africa, whom are trying to overthrow rule of force and institute rule of law, which is allegedly the type of dissent that the U.S.A. enjoys seeing when it happens anywhere outside of its borders.
However, for various underlying nefarious reasons, Uncle Sam simply can’t seem to view dissent against certain regimes on an equal level to others. They arbitrarily criticize, selectively and somewhat covertly infiltrate and attack, then toss the ball to NATO (and let’s face it, the letters should more appropriately be capitalized nAto) to make things look like as much of an allied multinational effort as possible. Long before the recent controversial actions in Libya, the United States, its government, and that government’s various leaders have made incredibly Machiavellian moves on the world stage, from the darkly tragicomic (Bay of Pigs) to the downright reprehensible (the 1973 Chilean coup d'état). This type of political behavior needs to be relegated to the same historical garbage heap as slavery and Native American genocide.
There needs to be an approach of balance, where the American government makes the message clear. On one end of the scale, sovereignty needs to be respected as well as recognized for all nations, whether on the U.S.A.’s border or on the other side of the planet. On the other end of the scale, it must also be established that the expression of dissent is an essential human right, and any world government that does not respect this inherent human right will not be seen in a favorable light, with America's objections acted upon as change in interaction with said offenders, political, economic and otherwise, and carried out in a clear, humanitarian and uncompromising manner. Measures need to employ common sense and make no arbitrary exception. Efforts to address perceived abuses need to be carried out across the board based on clear and realistic principles of liberty and equality and not on selfish interests, most especially of the mere financial kind.
America doesn’t need to make friends with the whole rest of the world. It just needs to make it clear that the nation is going to make an effort to be good neighbors, minding to its own business and not being a volatile imperialist nuisance to everybody else in this neighborhood called Earth. In return it should expect the same from the world's neighbors, but as life teaches us by the time most of us become adults, all we can do is live in the example of how we expect to be treated by others. It’s only fair. It’s what America’s message and contribution to the world should be all about.
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