The United States: Yesterday and Today

The recent terrorist strikes against the United States provoked a wave of questions and comments about the future of this global power, as well as the domestic and foreign fallout. The U.S. is over-stretched, a problem which will soon take a toll on its level of superiority in addition to the economic difficulties that still persist. It should be noted that the United States’ pride blinds it from what threatens it; preventative action is ignored due to its implications and costs. Perhaps politicians believe that this expansion and proliferation distract the minds of the American people from the painful reality that entails the rapid approach of economic and security hardships.

Certainly, older generations in the United States lived in a state of docility and only become angry when looking back to their former great land, when they lived in security and rivaled other colonial powers for spheres of influence. In their mind, they remember how the American model of democracy and human rights became no more than only slogans that the state-turned-empire raised under the banner of aggression, expansion and influence on every corner of the world. This has led to a totalitarian regime not unlike those repressive regimes that were opposed by the idealistic masses fighting for democracy and justice.

What happened a few days ago in Boston, and in other U.S. cities hit by homegrown terrorism, leads many politicians and observers to clearly say: This is a superpower, or rather a new empire; this is a dose of your own medicine. They tremble with fear and look for a lifeline, but hoping for a world without wars and international conflicts for the interests of its own people does not prevent disasters that are coming. The major powers are motivated by weapons of mass destruction on the one hand, including those belonging to those who transgress their rights, and the citizens on the other who suffer from the direct and indirect interference.

If the United States is to bemoan its fate because of terrorism and that terrorism happens to be home-grown, it must remember that it first sponsored international terrorism, oversaw the organization of its groups and has been committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and earlier in Vietnam, to committing atrocities, a rare example of what cannot be forgotten or undone. This reminds us of the words a contemporary wise poet said regarding the evils which America is prone to:

“He who’s roosted with evil will possess it;

he will die from that evil.”