Islam
Many in power, with a much louder voice than mine, would have you believe that Islam is a threat to the United States. It is not. A few thousand murderous and suicidal, religious, political, fundamentalist thugs with ex-soviet automatic weapons cannot topple the constitution of the United States. They cannot occupy our cities. They cannot suspend our elections. They cannot close our courts. They cannot impose their extreme Islamic law upon us. They cannot deprive us of our civil liberties.
They can inflict harm. They can attack us like a plague of locusts. They can deprive us of energy resources and force us to look for alternatives. They can attack us, but they cannot hold us. They cannot alter whom we are inside as a people. Only we can do that. There is, as far as I can see, no external threat that can occupy our nation and force us to change who we are. Some say China can. Others say Iran can. Some have said that Iraq could, but that never panned out.
China
China, with the exception of intervention in Border States, is not inclined to be involved in expansionary idealistic power grabs. When they have involved themselves as a military force, it has been to secure their borders from a foreign invader. In the post 100 years the invaders have been, more often than not, the United States (this is the case with Korea, and Vietnam).
I am not making any judgment calls on the validity of our intervention in either nation. We succeeded in securing South Korea as a free market economy; we failed to do so in Vietnam. The Chinese, for right or wrong, believe that in both cases they beat the United States military machine. The Chinese belief of military superiority just goes to show you that the U.S. does not have a monopoly on arrogant, self-serving mythology to save face.
Based on an overview of thousands of years of history, the Chinese being somewhat self-absorbed and assured of their cultural superiority, with more than a little xenophobia, tend to keep within their own borders. If anything, China will expand its economic influence as a consumer nation, but they will not drive their substantial military machine in any kind of global conquest. Why should they when just about everything we have is open for sale anyway?
Their commercial thirst for oil, not dissimilar to our own, may alter this. If completely cut off from external energy sources, China will succeed in building an empire based on emerging technologies in alternative, renewable resources. Being a new industrial nation, they have access to technologies that were not present when we hitched our economy to fossil oil (petroleum).
Many in power, with a much louder voice than mine, would have you believe that Islam is a threat to the United States. It is not. A few thousand murderous and suicidal, religious, political, fundamentalist thugs with ex-soviet automatic weapons cannot topple the constitution of the United States. They cannot occupy our cities. They cannot suspend our elections. They cannot close our courts. They cannot impose their extreme Islamic law upon us. They cannot deprive us of our civil liberties.
They can inflict harm. They can attack us like a plague of locusts. They can deprive us of energy resources and force us to look for alternatives. They can attack us, but they cannot hold us. They cannot alter whom we are inside as a people. Only we can do that. There is, as far as I can see, no external threat that can occupy our nation and force us to change who we are. Some say China can. Others say Iran can. Some have said that Iraq could, but that never panned out.
China
China, with the exception of intervention in Border States, is not inclined to be involved in expansionary idealistic power grabs. When they have involved themselves as a military force, it has been to secure their borders from a foreign invader. In the post 100 years the invaders have been, more often than not, the United States (this is the case with Korea, and Vietnam).
I am not making any judgment calls on the validity of our intervention in either nation. We succeeded in securing South Korea as a free market economy; we failed to do so in Vietnam. The Chinese, for right or wrong, believe that in both cases they beat the United States military machine. The Chinese belief of military superiority just goes to show you that the U.S. does not have a monopoly on arrogant, self-serving mythology to save face.
Based on an overview of thousands of years of history, the Chinese being somewhat self-absorbed and assured of their cultural superiority, with more than a little xenophobia, tend to keep within their own borders. If anything, China will expand its economic influence as a consumer nation, but they will not drive their substantial military machine in any kind of global conquest. Why should they when just about everything we have is open for sale anyway?
Their commercial thirst for oil, not dissimilar to our own, may alter this. If completely cut off from external energy sources, China will succeed in building an empire based on emerging technologies in alternative, renewable resources. Being a new industrial nation, they have access to technologies that were not present when we hitched our economy to fossil oil (petroleum).
Iran
Iran, again within the limited scope of what I can see, doesn’t seem to have its sight set on toppling the U.S. government. If nothing else, we seem to be, as of late, more interested in provoking them than they are in provoking us. Admittedly, based on recent news reports, they seem to be expanding their brand of Islamic fundamental ideals to the rest of the region, and may seriously come to threaten the U.S. interest concerning Israel. They do not, however, seem to have global aspirations that could topple the Constitution of the United States or significantly alter our ideals and our lives.
Disregarding the pragmatic political aspect of Israel’s existence, the primary reason for our almost unquestioning support of Israel is that they are the “Chosen People” of God. This is a religious argument. In that vein, one has to wonder if it is in our best interest to be so blindly supportive of Israel. In their own Biblical record, they have not served their God in any particular way to enthrall themselves to Him. As a matter of record, they have rebelled against Him on numerous occasions which, if you believe the religious record of Israel, has caused Him to destroy them on many occasions. As such, from a religious point of view, I do question the wisdom of such blanket support of Israel. They do have a track record and it is not a pretty one.
European Union
Europe, excluding Great Britain, may be the only true power in the world today that can pose a threat to the United States. We have managed to alienate two of the biggest nations in Europe (Germany and France), as well as Russia. At one time or another in history, both France and Germany have been superpowers capable of inflicting grievous harm and control over others. However, the European Union seems to be completely preoccupied in consolidating its own internal influence as a single unified political state. They failed to ratify the European Union Constitution in 2005; one of the primary disagreements was over the recognition of Europe as a Christian state (they still struggle with the taint of the Catholic theocracy and the extended dark ages.) The likelihood of the Economic Union (E.U.) posing any kind of threat against the U.S. seems extremely slim at this time.
Central and South America
The possible challenge to the U.S. may come from our southern neighbors. As of late, the news services have had stories of alliances of various political figures in opposition to Mr. Bush’s administration. Since we seem to disregard our southern neighbors as some outcast peons subject to our will, the coverage of the troubles and differences in Mexico, Central America, and South America tend to be under-reported. However, Fox, Chavez, and the aging Castro have all come out in recent times to oppose the policies of the current U.S. government. In a move reminiscent of the 1980’s movie, Red Dawn, our southern neighbors could amass a force large enough to occupy a substantial portion of the southwest United States. This could open the gateway for additional forces from, now unaligned, Islamic nations that react to the continuing U.S. provocation. Only this kind of coalition could swarm over our borders to pose a serious threat to the U.S. However, this is not a highly probable threat.
Inside the USA
As things are right now, at the end of April 2006, as Mr. Bush and company again are building up to an expansion of their Holy War. The only real threat to the Constitution is our own polarized and divided population.
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