They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no farther!
Capt Jean-Luc Picard – Enterprise-E – Star Trek: First Contact
For some reason I have been wanting to post that quote for weeks. Everytime that I read/watch the news especially when it is relating to North Koreas and their nuclear testing, Iran and their nuclear technology aspirations and any news story relating to terrorism seems to trigger it. It seems like the last few decades there is a general inclination to avoid conflict….ANY conflict, and if for some reason there is a conflict to end it no matter what.
It seems that after World War II, once Japan attacked us and pulled us into the fray, that no one except minor terrorists dared to attack us. Now it seems to me that we have lost our reputation. Think about North Korea’s failed ballistic missle test that was supposed to fly towards Hawaii, but not hit us. Think about Mexico challenging us because we decided to build a border fence on our own soil.
I don’t say this to piss people off or to say that we should go to war and prove that we are not weak. I say this to show that the general impression that we have been giving off is that we like running away from a fight, especially when it gets to hard or the media, and in turn thepublic, doesn’t like it. Like I said these are just the thoughts that have been swimming through my mind threatening to drown me unless I let them out.
Although I personally haven’t decided whether I still agree with the war in Iraq(I did initially for the record), I still believe it is of the utmost importance to finish what we started. If we run away from Iraq now leaving it in the chaos then the next time we are attacked, either by another country or by terrorists, the war will be over before it even begins.
P.S. The title is a joke not a suggested course of action!!!
Paleck,
I understand and appreciate what you’re saying, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a nation who, over the last 200 years, had been in more wars than the United States. How many military/police actions that involve force have we been involved in, just since Vietnam?
Again, I agree that it’s problematic to leave Iraq now that our invasion’s basically ruined its entire social infrastructure, but to suggest that the United States (the world’s only superpower), a nation that never hesitates to use force, is somehow suddenly afraid to fight flies in the face of my lived experience as a citizen of this country.
Were that it was true.
Peridyd
I’m not trying to suggest that the US would be afraid to go into a fight. I find it more likely that the other countries/terrorists/parties will view this as a another example that the we are reluctant and unwilling to commit fully to protecting ourselves. It also gives them the impresssion that because we are “unsure of ourselves” that we will be unwilling to go to the lengths needed to follow through on any action if they play their cards correctly to the media and by inference the people. Also the same range of thinking that gives off the impression that we will not fully commit ourselves gives rise to the thought that we are no longer a super power, but nothing more than a bully that runs away when he gets his nose bloodied.