Western Asia in most contexts. Possible extensions. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think that for far too long our major engagements in Foreign Policies have been distracting us from addressing many of our more serious Domestic problems.  We are presently involved in two military engagements in the Middle East: Iraq and Pakistan, involved in a nuclear standoff with North Korea, and are on the precipice of getting involved with a Syrian revolution.  Since WWII we have spent about $3 Trillion on wars abroad with almost nothing to show but more than 100,000 dead and 300,000 damaged soldiers and millions of other casualties of war abroad.  We praise our brave soldiers for the great sacrifices they have endured fighting for our country but towards what end?  We have never created stability for regions we have engaged by our military actions.  So what have we really achieved for all the money, resources and lives resulting from our Foreign policies?  With few exceptions virtually zilch.

We have almost never achieved any of our long-term goals and most of our short-term goals have been to withdrawal as gracefully as we can.  What is ultimately left is more instability that before our engagement.  History is replete with examples of our failures yet we continue to make the same mistakes.  It is almost as if we believe that our military might alone can solve all problems abroad.

Part of the problem is that we do have the strongest military presence in the world and it seems that we need to prove this to the world.  This bullying attitude is actually not working.  It only makes more resolute enemies and antagonizes them to strike back.  We accuse Arab terrorist of being cowards and killing many innocent Americans.  But for every American killed by them we kill hundreds of their children, wives, husbands and other relatives, friends, and countrymen and invade their country.  What do they have to fight us with but some very simple explosives, weapons, and suicide bombs while we kill them with our well armed troupes, remote killer drones, smart bomb, tanks, and technology.

It is time we leave the rest of the world alone and focus on our own problems.  We have a Congress that is totally dysfunctional.  We have mass killings and very high murder rates where over 11,000 are killed by guns here annually.  We have commercial fraud and industrial pollution.  The economy is weak and the national debt overwhelming.  We have urgent climate change issues that need very seriously attention.  We have great social and economic inequities, gender identity discrimination, illegal immigration, and where the very rich are getting far more wealthy and powerful, the middle class is struggling and getting poorer, and the number of poor keep on growing.  We have a failing medical system, an unacceptable jobless rate and a crippled economy, increases violence, social inequities, infrastructure in serious need of repairs and upgrade, and global warming that all need far better solutions.

We need a President that is 100% focused on our domestic woes, not on the woes of other nations.  We need a President that spends more time with Congress and his domestic advisers, not more time with foreign leaders and his foreign and military advisers.  We desperately need a functional Congress.  We need to invest money here, not squandered it in some country far away.  We need to build up our infrastructure and economy here, not destroy others by war or their economy by sanctions.  We need to develop cures for cancer and diseases here, not kill people and wreak havoc and destruction in some foreign land abroad.

Let us invest our money, lives, and resources to make America a better country for Americans.  We are not very good at helping other.  We are even worst at helping ourselves.  Don’t we have plenty of problems of our own to fix?