Article: Fear, Ignorance and Defeatism on the Home-Front

Why does it seem that so many actually want our endeavors to spread a lasting stability in the Middle East to fail? Is it not somewhat pathological to desire such an outcome when so many lives hang in the balance? And I don't just mean millions of nameless, faceless non-American lives that so many here seem to lose no sleep over. If we fail here, as we did in Somalia, as we did in Lebanon and in Vietnam it will set back progressive interventionist U.S. foreign policy a generation. If the United States loses the will to export security to the developing world, there will be no one left with the will or the means to fulfill that role and millions, perhaps billions will suffer as a result.
Just as the souls lost in the killing fields of Cambodia, the frozen wastelands of Siberia and the pogroms of China's Great Leap Forward conveniently do not enter in to our debate on U.S. Cold War policy, so too would be the temptation to ignore the human cost of our extrication from the developing world. But this time, the victims won't be of some ideologue’s pathology, but from the apathy and cowardice of a developed world that acknowledges their humanity long enough only to extract their resources and exploit their cheap labor for a tidy profit. And this time the developing world will exhibit an increasing willingness to export back to us regular, horrific reminders of the reality we will have abandoned them to.
If one were look beyond the religious fundamentalist rhetoric of Osama bin Laden, they would see a perception of our culture as nothing more than shallow, indifferent and exploitative opportunism. However, I believe most anger toward the United States as standard-bearer of the emerging global culture is more a case of unrequited love than of true hatred. For the average human who has close to nothing, America still symbolized a hope, a promise of a better life. But as the self-appointed "Champions of Human Dignity and Freedom" our double-standard is painfully evident to those on the outside. For all of our flowery, self-aggrandizing labels none have ever inspired much of an evangelical nature amongst the average citizen for the rights of others- at least not for those who happen to exist beyond our borders. This fatal apathy has never been wrought from an active, malicious neglect - which is why it remains a concept so hard for most Americans to grasp. When confronted with the reality of the rest of humanity and our indifference to it, the tendency is to react defensively - reflexively spouting proud platitudes about the "generosity of America". This typically involves some reference to things done two generations ago, like the Marshal plan or the reconstruction of Japan. Statistics are carelessly regurgitated about the United States being the largest provider of foreign aid in the world; a statement made either out of ignorance or gross disingenuousness as, based on the more accurate measurement of percentage of GDP, we rank as one of the most stingy, somewhere just below Portugal.
To extend the oft-used analogy of the United States as the "shining city on the hill", it would seem our citizenry is more interested in building walls around the city than expanding our circle of prosperity and human dignity. Xenophobia has exploded back onto the scene (if it ever left) as the discourse on issues that have been around for decades like health care and criminal justice take on a decidedly anti-immigrant tone. "Homeland Security" has become a national obsession as fear seems to control the actions of more and more American minds. As this happens, the inclination to look beyond ourselves to understand and confront the systemic problems that bring about the human misery just outside our "borders" is severely curtailed. Instead of focusing our attention on the brutal realities that foster the kind of hatred displayed on September 11th, we are losing sight of them in an increasingly self-interested, protectionist mindset.

“To avoid destruction the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation.” ~ George F. Keenan