Rethinking America's Place In the World

A U.S. MILITARY PLANE, en route from the American military base on Okinawa, Japan, to the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan floating in the south china Sea, went missing, and is presumably lost. yet another in a lengthening list of recent U.s. naval accidents in the far pacific, involving loss of life. Thorough investigation and analysis of each of these tragedies is beginning to indicate that t combination of vulnerabilities is the cause, the common denominator. For one, a lack of training. Much of the time, navel personnel are trained for their future assignments as pilots, navigators, or other high tech high responsibility specialties by computer simulation - and little or nothing else. then too, the navy, like the rest of the military, is undermanned and overburdened for the task of carrying out all that is required to accomplish its assignments in the fact of an aggressive, proactive, global American foreign and military policy. And this raises a question: why, exactly, is the American military expected to conduct operations all over the world, engage in perpetual warfare, engage in perpetual monitoring, patrol, and training, when economic and geo-political circumstances often seem to dictate another course of action? The people of Okinawa have fore decades vehemently opposed the presence of American military forces on their land. Protests have often turned violent, and numerous incidents involving American servicemen and Japanese civilians have only made the situation worse. Japan is economically strong, and would seemingly be quite capable of providing for its onw defense needs. since World War Two the U.S. has taken on the responsibility of defending Japan, the initial reason being an American unwillingness to allow japan to rearm. To whatever extent this rationale was justified after World War Two, it certainly no longer is. The United States maintains a global network of over eight hundred military installations in far flung regions - for what purpose? To defend liberty and freedom around the world? If you believe that, go hunting for real estate in central Florida, I have a great bargain for you. The reason, obviously, is to maintain American dominance of the world, to protect and maintain the American empire, and to provide the military might to support America's desire to penetrate markets worldwide, and access to resources, mineral, financial, and human, around the world. America, from the time Americans crossed the Appalachians and heads, to the present, has been an expanding resource hungry corporate empire. Most of us, mearly all of us agree, that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been disastrous for all concerned. The Viet Nam war was a disaster, even it did indeed accomplish its main objective of insinuating American puppet regimes and opening doors to American influence in southeast Asia. American foreign policy, backed by its military, has, historically, been tragic both for the Untied States and for the nations around the world whose resources have bene plundered and its people terrorized. there have been many excellent studies of all this by capable scholars, who support their conclusions with facts. Among the best at "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy", by Wm. A. Williams, and "Who Rules the World", a new book by Noam Chomsky. Maybe its time to rethink the entirety of America's role and position in the world. it might even be time to consider removing American forces from Okinawa, and other places.