A lot of Americans take considerable pride in their military might, and perhaps that is understandable.
Yet, increasingly, America's once good name has been compromised, as the nation has earned a reputation for being arrogant bullies under many circumstances, in various parts of the world.
We all know that American forces have been stretched pretty thin for a long, long time now. Also, the United States has often engaged in wars that can only be said to have cost them dearly, in many ways.
Take the recent war in Iraq as an example. This was a conflict that is now seen widely as one of the greatest blunders in the history of American foreign policy. Right from the get go, it was fought under false pretenses, with claims that the Bush administration knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Saddam Hussein had mass arsenals of Weapons of mass Destruction (WMD's), which posed an immediate threat to world peace, requiring immediate military action, as a preventative measure. But, Bush and everyone in his administration assured us, the war would be over quickly and decisively in favor of the United States. Rumsfeld even went so far as to suggest that the war would last six days or six weeks, but not six months. The whole invasion was linked to the regime's "global war on terror".
At first, the war seemed to go as planned. Saddam was indeed toppled within a couple of weeks, and Bush went aboard an aircraft carrier to make a victory speech, with a big, huge, and now infamous banner reading "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"
As it turned out, that was more than a tad premature. The war continued and, far from having achieved victory, the nation learned painfully that it is usually far more difficult to achieve a lasting peace as an occupying power, than it is to topple an overmatched regime with relentless missiles and bombings, even if you give that strategy a fancy name, like "Shock and awe".
In the meantime, people kept dying. Over four thousand Americans were killed in Iraq and, depending on what sources you listen to, one hundred thousand, to possibly even hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. The nation was destabilized, and this invited terrorism in, where it largely had not existed prior to the war. Just a few days ago, Al Qaeda militants took over Fallujah, a city in Iraq who's very name might just send Americans a chill up their spine, as this city was the site of one of the most gruesome setbacks for the American military operation there a decade or so ago.
There are other names in connection to the Iraq war that should make Americans uneasy, as well. Some of them would be people, like Jessica Lynch. Some would be prisons, like Abu Ghraib. Some would be corporations, like Halliburton and Blackwater. And, of course, WMD's.
Of course, what hurt the reputation of the United States internationally was the automatic presumption that they were right, and always would be, come what may. Many Americans viewed this as a heroic and necessary action, rather than an unjust war of aggression waged by an oil-obsessed nation led by an administration filled with oil tycoons, which should have been an automatic red flag as a major and glaringly obvious conflict of interest, given that this was an oil rich region. The vast majority of the world warned that the United States was making a big mistake, and that it was wrong.
Still, the administration went to war, which illustrated the arrogance. Underscoring that was the fact that the United States was already engaged in another war, of course. That one was in Afghanistan, and like Iraq, it had seemed to be going well early on, as the United States allowed something called "The Northern Alliance" to do it's fighting for it, gaining ground and taking over much of the country from Taliban control. It happened so fast, that the success seemed definitive.
Yet, it became clear before too long that this was not as solid a victory as it had seemed at first. Slowly, it became clear that Al Qaeda had not simply gone away, as they regrouped and seemed to gain momentum again before too long. Plus, we were there to capture Osama Bin Laden, and bring him to justice. But the years passed, and still, no Bin Laden. He would only be killed (not captured and brought to justice as had been promised) many years after the war began.
And in the meanwhile, the bad news started to become obvious in Afghanistan, like it already was in Iraq. In fact, the numerous mishaps and setbacks showed American vulnerabilities, rather than overall invincibility. And only when the wars began to go badly, did they start to become very unpopular.
By then, of course, it was too late. We were already there, with boots on the grounds, and tied into the conflict. We remain in Afghanistan still today, and it now has gotten the dubious distinction as the longest war that the US has ever been involved in. Recent diplomatic tensions between the two countries has only served to illustrate further the lack of success of this mission, and Afghanistan remains a place desperately seeking stability.
These two military operations from the United States were supposed to be examples of American military might. But instead, they illustrated vulnerabilities, as well as putting into question the honesty and integrity of the nation, which always declared good faith and honorable intentions throughout. But names like Halliburton, Blackwater, and Abu Ghraib, in particular, and the instability that plagued (and continues to plague) both Iraq and Afghanistan since, suggest that the actions were less than honorable, and far from illustrating America's military might.
For that matter, these wars proved terribly costly from a strictly financial perspective, as well. At precisely a time when Americans were facing tough economic times, Americans were paying for wars that were sapping them, and limiting how much money they had to spend back at home. How much? Take a look at the link below, which shows that the costs of the two wars combined could reach the $6 trillion mark.
The other link shows American military commitments on a map of the world, and we can only imagine how much these are costing American taxpayers.
We should take a good look at these, and decide if, indeed, the cost of the American Empire truly is worth it.
I, for one, am beginning to wonder.
"Cost to US of Iraq and Afghan wars could hit $6 trillion" by Peter Foster, Washington, March 29, 2013:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9961877/Cost-to-US-of-Iraq-and-Afghan-wars-could-hit-6-trillion.html
"The Startling Size of US Special Forces" by Nick Turse, January 8, 2014:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/map-startling-size-us-special%20forces
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