Generally, when American citizens think of terrorism, certain stereotypes sadly come to mind. When talking about terrorism in America, it is quite uncommon to have the debate circulate around Ireland. The Provisional Irish Republican Army, commonly known as, "the IRA," is a group in Northern Ireland that has used forms of terrorism to make statements about their beliefs concerning the future of Ireland, specifically Northern Ireland, for the past 30 years.
One might ask, "What does this have to do with the United States role as a super power?" In terms of this question, it is interesting that in the past few years, the United States government has not done much to aid in this situation. I have done some research into the type of aid being provided by the United States, and frankly I cannot find much of anything about our role in creating peace in the country, other than words of encouragement. Luckily, it seems that lately the Irish have agreed on a treaty, but this is not to say that there was not any violence and killings before. The United States role as the super power of the world in this situation is interesting because of the fact that stopping terrorism is one of the main goals of the government's foreign policy, but in this situation, it seems that the United States gave the cold shoulder to helping Northern Ireland.
I am confused about my position on role of the U.S. in this affair because of what my beliefs are concerning the roles of the U.S. as a global power. Although there has been human suffering from this organization, I think that the U.S. government's actions portray the sad truth that the situation has not had a significant enough impact on the world to be deemed a priority. Luckily the situation has had resolve in the lately, but it is interesting to me that helping Northern Ireland would be much less troubling than taking on the issues of countries like Iraq, but nothing has really been done to help this country. This situation portrays the reality that as much as we want the U.S. to help in every situation that has unjustness for people it cannot. This strengthens my theory that the best solution to help the world is to make it a worldly goal of industrialized countries to end the conflict in these types of situations. As of now, this worldly attitude is only capable of happening through hard work by a country like the U.S. who has the ability to be a leader of all countries.
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I agree that is it unfeasible for the U.S. to help every nation in need. In reality every nation in the world, including the U.S. could use some support whether it be economically, diplomatically, or through military actions. However, there is no country that can do this. When it comes down to the U.S. giving support to other countries I feel as though we must be selfish. I don't believe it is our duty, in the most literal sense of the word, to help any other country. However, it is in our interest to help those countries that could potentially threaten our well being, such as Iraq or Afghanistan. While this may not sound like the most morally sound thing to do in reality we can't stretch our self thin when there are plenty in America who need support. Countries like Ireland receive little to know sympathy because, I hate to say it, but there problems in relation to the U.S. and the world are minimal. How do you feel about this?
ReplyDeleteAs I state in my post, the situation in Ireland has not had a significant enough impact on the world in order to be deemed a priority by the United States. With this said, there is a sad truth behind your statements in that it seems that the U.S. must be selfish. At the same time, it is admirable how much aid the U.S. gives to the rest of the world. What it comes down to though is the fact that nothing can ever be perfect. During the beginning of my research, my ideas were similar to yours, and they were partly why I chose to blog about this subject. The answers I have found are that the U.S. cannot fix the world by itself, and by no means should we think it can. With this said, I think that the logical answer is that the U.S. should be the leader in making it a global priority to stop human suffering. I believe that the best outcome would occur if all countries gave something to the fight against slavery and persecution. If this could happen, maybe there would be enough support in the dangerous situations, so that more aid could be provided in situations like Ireland.
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