Dangers Beyond the Accomplished Mission
October 23rd 2011 12:50
On this Sunday morning there can be no argument that the world is now a safer place without the threat of a dictator responsible for reprehensible terrorist acts and the exploitation of his countrymen.
The death of Muammar Gaddafi evoked the same kind of emotions of relief, joy and closure for many world citizens that the news of Saddam Hussein’s and Osama Bin Laden’s capture and death brought to many.
It is the feeling that comes with saying the phrase “Mission Accomplished” that can be more dangerous than the decision to go into battle.
The feeling that the all the problems in the world rest on the shoulders of a few mad men was the driving force behind the decision to create abstract terms like the “Axis of Evil” that created the foreign policy directive for regime change at all costs.
All costs, that took the lives of thousands of service members in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the arrogance of leadership spoiled by decades of what some would consider peace compared to the turmoil that exists in the world today.
A world, where the idea of the United States of America taking direct action to depose leadership of sovereign nations we do not agree with is now a policy directive that many people in positions of leadership openly support.
If we learned anything from history by looking back at the things accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan compared to everything lost through the destabilization of an already explosive region, the strengthening of fundamentalist networks, the financial toll taken on the World Economy and the lives lost during the prolonged occupation of two countries; there can be no other choice than rethinking our current foreign policy directive.
Instead, we heap praise on political leadership for the action of accomplishing the mission without any consideration of what will happen to the vacuum created in impoverished nations that are now left to their own devices.
Devices that we assume will be filled with the beauty of democracy and free elections but as history has shown us; is usually filled with Civil War, Chaos, Terror and the rise of dictators that are more dangerous to the world than the ones that came before.
A world without the men and women that cause chaos around the globe is a better place but there can be no argument about the dangerous precedent set by a government that is willing to disrupt a region for what they consider the greater good but lacks the resources to ensure that the rebuilding process doesn’t come back to haunt them in the future.
Something the United States of America is all too familiar with when we take a careful look at the timeline between the Cold War and the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001.
In the midst of a war to give an enemy more powerful than anything the United States of America had seen before a final death blow; the decision was made to involve ourselves in a conflict that did not directly effect the homeland.
Because of this decision, the Soviets were defeated by Afghanistan Rebels that were left to their own devices to rebuild a war ravaged nation without any support from the rest of the world.
Schools weren’t rebuilt, streets were left destroyed and the morale of a nation was left to be bolstered by fundamentalists that created a breeding ground for the networks of terror that eventually drafted plans for the 9/11 attacks.
Decades later, the world has found itself in the same situation.
A situation, where a group of sovereign nations in a region going through a social revolution are now being forced to rebuild on their own after decades of war…
A rebuilding process that is expected to be a triumph for democracy and freedom but will most likely be a boost for rogue nations and fundamentalist terror groups.
The problem with expectations is that they have and will never be responsible for structuring the ideals of nation from thousands of miles away and usually evolve on a different path from the way it has been done anywhere in the world before.
When it is all said and done, the leadership of nations that participate in regime change can only have control over the actions of capturing rogue leadership.
While deposing leadership makes for great headlines it does nothing for the most important work of all that comes with ensuring that the world remains a safer place by not allowing the situation to create itself again.
There is no man, woman or nation that has the resources to ensure this for a sovereign nation that now needs the help of the entire world much less for the existence of vacuums that are now throughout a Middle East Region that is sprouting new uprisings each and every day.
It is the accomplished mission that clouds the bigger issue.
The bigger issue that should be approached by thinking beyond the names of men and women that haunt our dreams and considering the risks that outweigh the rewards.
The death of Muammar Gaddafi evoked the same kind of emotions of relief, joy and closure for many world citizens that the news of Saddam Hussein’s and Osama Bin Laden’s capture and death brought to many.
It is the feeling that comes with saying the phrase “Mission Accomplished” that can be more dangerous than the decision to go into battle.
The feeling that the all the problems in the world rest on the shoulders of a few mad men was the driving force behind the decision to create abstract terms like the “Axis of Evil” that created the foreign policy directive for regime change at all costs.
All costs, that took the lives of thousands of service members in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the arrogance of leadership spoiled by decades of what some would consider peace compared to the turmoil that exists in the world today.
A world, where the idea of the United States of America taking direct action to depose leadership of sovereign nations we do not agree with is now a policy directive that many people in positions of leadership openly support.
If we learned anything from history by looking back at the things accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan compared to everything lost through the destabilization of an already explosive region, the strengthening of fundamentalist networks, the financial toll taken on the World Economy and the lives lost during the prolonged occupation of two countries; there can be no other choice than rethinking our current foreign policy directive.
Instead, we heap praise on political leadership for the action of accomplishing the mission without any consideration of what will happen to the vacuum created in impoverished nations that are now left to their own devices.
Devices that we assume will be filled with the beauty of democracy and free elections but as history has shown us; is usually filled with Civil War, Chaos, Terror and the rise of dictators that are more dangerous to the world than the ones that came before.
A world without the men and women that cause chaos around the globe is a better place but there can be no argument about the dangerous precedent set by a government that is willing to disrupt a region for what they consider the greater good but lacks the resources to ensure that the rebuilding process doesn’t come back to haunt them in the future.
Something the United States of America is all too familiar with when we take a careful look at the timeline between the Cold War and the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001.
In the midst of a war to give an enemy more powerful than anything the United States of America had seen before a final death blow; the decision was made to involve ourselves in a conflict that did not directly effect the homeland.
Because of this decision, the Soviets were defeated by Afghanistan Rebels that were left to their own devices to rebuild a war ravaged nation without any support from the rest of the world.
Schools weren’t rebuilt, streets were left destroyed and the morale of a nation was left to be bolstered by fundamentalists that created a breeding ground for the networks of terror that eventually drafted plans for the 9/11 attacks.
Decades later, the world has found itself in the same situation.
A situation, where a group of sovereign nations in a region going through a social revolution are now being forced to rebuild on their own after decades of war…
A rebuilding process that is expected to be a triumph for democracy and freedom but will most likely be a boost for rogue nations and fundamentalist terror groups.
The problem with expectations is that they have and will never be responsible for structuring the ideals of nation from thousands of miles away and usually evolve on a different path from the way it has been done anywhere in the world before.
When it is all said and done, the leadership of nations that participate in regime change can only have control over the actions of capturing rogue leadership.
While deposing leadership makes for great headlines it does nothing for the most important work of all that comes with ensuring that the world remains a safer place by not allowing the situation to create itself again.
There is no man, woman or nation that has the resources to ensure this for a sovereign nation that now needs the help of the entire world much less for the existence of vacuums that are now throughout a Middle East Region that is sprouting new uprisings each and every day.
It is the accomplished mission that clouds the bigger issue.
The bigger issue that should be approached by thinking beyond the names of men and women that haunt our dreams and considering the risks that outweigh the rewards.
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