I hope you all had a nice break. I didn't. I was trapped in Las Vegas for like a week. Can you imagine a town that size and not a single book store? It was horrible.
Anyway, you can post reaction papers to the text here. We are going to start looking at different areas of policy, starting with foreign policy. This second half of the course is a little different. We look at what the government should do rather than at what it does. You may find this part of the course more engaging.
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8th Journal
Foreign Policy
It seems understandable that prior to the Cold War, the United States had a foreign policy including isolationism, meaning that they stayed out of others affairs when it came to wars. It also makes since that after the Cold War began, the United States began involving themselves with the world.
Prior to the Cold War, the United States was very young and inexperienced. It was not the supreme power that it is today and had little authority in the rest of the world. The only foreign policy that ever took place before the Cold War involved the imperialism of third world nations such as Panama and the Philippines.
Of course, the Cold War changed everything. The United States was legitimately worried about the threat of the domino theory and believed that they were the only defense against the Communist threat. So, they involved themselves in the Korean and Vietnam Wars to prevent the spread of Communism and restore Capitalism and Democracy.
In conclusion, today, the United States has had to change back to their Cold War mentality with regard to global terrorism. They have to do this because we must create democracies in the Middle East and that will not support terrorism and help us fight the war on terror.
It’s interesting that in Washington’s farewell address he speaks of permanent alliances that would “doom” the smaller and weaker nation to become a satellite of the larger. This would have been much more applicable in the earlier years of the U.S. as it wasn’t as connected internationally whether it was commercially of politically. Now with small nations that represent ideals that we embody or hold economic value to us, the U.S. has to try and keep stability in regions with such alliances. Not only has the U.S. become more involved internationally in foreign policy aspects but also special interest groups have come about and represent every region in the world here in the U.S. as the population is a greater mix of nationalities, religions, and ethnic groups. America has no choice but to form alliances with smaller nations and become involved in their well being. America had no real need to do this in earlier years as the world was not as close and interdependent and American really wouldn’t have gained anything from it.
I am in complete agreement with Rachel on this one. Although I believe that the United States should stay out of other nations business, I can see why they do it. However I can not help but think of the situation that we have today. Today we think that Democracy is the best way to live our lives. So therefore we try to make it felt across the world. Back in the time of the Cold War Communist were a big political party that believed their views were right. So in reality who is really right? We believed that communism was wrong so we then proceeded to stop it from dominoing across the world. We did the exact thing that Washington was afraid of, which is involving ourselves in other affairs and having alliances. Although this has proved very useful in our own affairs that we have today in our war on terror. By having alliances the United States has turned out to have supreme power as well as influence throughout the world.
Something that really grabbed my attention in this chapter is the fact that it said that we must prepare for war to prevent war. At first, this had me a little confused and wondering how this could even make since. However as I thought about it a little more, I realized that it did make since. It made since to me because I thought about it as if we are prepared for war at all times then this may intimidate our enemies and make them afraid of us because we are always so well prepared for an outbreak of war in turn preventing a war from ever beginning. Most Americans do not like it when our country is at war and having our soldiers losing their lives, so it makes good since that if alls it takes for us to prevent war is for us to be prepared for it, then that is what must be done. But this raises a big question in my mind, if being prepared for war prevents war, then were we not prepared for the war in Iraq? Because if we were prepared for it, then wouldn't that have prevented us going to war with Iraq according to the phrase that says that if we are prepared for war then war will be prevented.
From watching the God farther, it seem as though it tied in with what we were discussing in class. The phrase we must prepare for war to prevent war really caught my eye and I believed that this movie could follow that as well. No matter what the family does, it must always be aware of other families and their plans. When mike took over as head of things, he farther prepared him for what was going to happen to him. He was getting set up to be assonated by the other families. He knew what was going to happen, so he was ready and prepared for the battle at hand. Mike was able to stop everything before it started and kill off the other families who secretly wanted to kill him. This brought back piece and balance to all the families. Being ready for what happens allowed Mike to not only save his life but also the reputation of his family. This can also be resembled as the United States and its president. The president has soldiers who are prepared for war and anything else that might harm our country. So if war does break out we are ready with a plan.
From reading the chapter and watching the classic movie "The Godfather", I have learned a couple of new things. First of all I have learned that money, power, and respect are very important in this world. On the other hand I have learned that in order to prevent war you must prepare for war. The fact was mentioned in the chapter and also demonstrated in the movie. As the movie was approaching its end, Don Corleone past his leadership over to his son Mike. He then told Mike when he was gone a meeting would be called with the other families in order to kill him. He also told him that the person that set up this meeting would be a traitor. When this time came Mike was well prepared for it and got them before they got him. The fact that he was prepared for what was going to happen really helped him out. Instead of dying and starting a war between the families, Mike killed the other leaders and prevented the war.
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