By Daniel Nardini
When I lived in Seoul, South Korea, I saw from time to time American soldiers on the subway, driving on the highway in U.S. military vehicles, and guarding U.S. military bases and installations. For well over half a century, they have been there to defend the Republic of Korea. Despite South Korean political leftists calling them every dirty name in the book, and publicly wanting them out of the country, most South Koreans realize that American soldiers are necessary for the safety and maintenance of peace on the Korean peninsula. Having foreign troops stationed on their soil is a small price to pay to keep their country safe. The same thing is true with Japan, and the same thing is true with most of Europe with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
The reason for America’s military alliances with various countries around the world is two-fold. It is to protect the United States from powerful authoritarian nations from getting too close to the United States to attack us. It is also a mechanism to protect smaller nations (well, smaller than the United States) from being attacked by much bigger and more powerful adversaries. And unfortunately there are two very bad adversaries in Europe and Asia that we must all worry about. They are Russia in Europe (also in North America because Russia also borders Alaska), and China in Asia. These two countries are now rogue nations that have no trouble attacking and swallowing up whole countries and never permitting them to have freedom again. The Ukraine War should be a reminder of this.
There is no doubt that the United States had been guilty in the past of attacking smaller nations in the past. The American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) plotted coup against the democratically elected government of Guatemala is one sad example of this. Just as equally sad was the U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-1848 where the U.S. southern slavocracy wanted to seize land away from Mexico to expand slave-holding territory (eventually we ended the southern slavocracy in a bloody civil war from 1861-1865). I could go on and on about what the United States did wrong in the past, but I think I have made my point. It also comes to the point that in America I can say these things. This is not possible in China or Russia right now. Anyone voicing anything critical about the governments in these two countries will face jail, torture and even execution.
And this is the qualitative difference between America and the large rogue nations of China and Russia. These countries will not only threaten their own people and keep them in chains, but will conquer and put into bondage other smaller countries. This has been the lesson of history about these countries under undemocratic governments. If the Chinese and Russian governments do not permit their own people the basic freedoms we Americans take for granted, then they will most certainly not permit other nations to do the same. This is why other smaller nations now more than ever want to band together with each other and have the military and logistical support of the United States. The United States, along with Canada, have become the defender and protector of smaller nations.
There are those Americans who say we should have no more military alliances in the world, should disengage from everywhere so we can be “at peace with the world at last.” We should be like Switzerland, where we close ourselves off from being entangled in other wars and other conflicts. These American isolationists really do not understand the world we live in now, and do not understand that there are rogue nations which do not want peace with the United States and only want conquest and expansion at a cost to other nations and at a cost to the United States as well. If any of these fools need any more convincing of the dangerous world we live in now, they should look at what has happened in the Ukraine War. Two European countries, Finland and Sweden, both neutral countries, see the danger to themselves and are now for the first time in their history willing to join the NATO alliance. Taiwan wants America’s protection from China. If Taiwan falls, then the Chinese military may not stop until it takes the American territory of Guam and the U.S. state of Hawaii. As I said again, the United States is the defender of smaller nations.
United States: Defender of Smaller Nations
By Daniel Nardini
The reason for America’s military alliances with various countries around the world is two-fold. It is to protect the United States from powerful authoritarian nations from getting too close to the United States to attack us. It is also a mechanism to protect smaller nations (well, smaller than the United States) from being attacked by much bigger and more powerful adversaries. And unfortunately there are two very bad adversaries in Europe and Asia that we must all worry about. They are Russia in Europe (also in North America because Russia also borders Alaska), and China in Asia. These two countries are now rogue nations that have no trouble attacking and swallowing up whole countries and never permitting them to have freedom again. The Ukraine War should be a reminder of this.
There is no doubt that the United States had been guilty in the past of attacking smaller nations in the past. The American CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) plotted coup against the democratically elected government of Guatemala is one sad example of this. Just as equally sad was the U.S.-Mexico War of 1846-1848 where the U.S. southern slavocracy wanted to seize land away from Mexico to expand slave-holding territory (eventually we ended the southern slavocracy in a bloody civil war from 1861-1865). I could go on and on about what the United States did wrong in the past, but I think I have made my point. It also comes to the point that in America I can say these things. This is not possible in China or Russia right now. Anyone voicing anything critical about the governments in these two countries will face jail, torture and even execution.
And this is the qualitative difference between America and the large rogue nations of China and Russia. These countries will not only threaten their own people and keep them in chains, but will conquer and put into bondage other smaller countries. This has been the lesson of history about these countries under undemocratic governments. If the Chinese and Russian governments do not permit their own people the basic freedoms we Americans take for granted, then they will most certainly not permit other nations to do the same. This is why other smaller nations now more than ever want to band together with each other and have the military and logistical support of the United States. The United States, along with Canada, have become the defender and protector of smaller nations.
There are those Americans who say we should have no more military alliances in the world, should disengage from everywhere so we can be “at peace with the world at last.” We should be like Switzerland, where we close ourselves off from being entangled in other wars and other conflicts. These American isolationists really do not understand the world we live in now, and do not understand that there are rogue nations which do not want peace with the United States and only want conquest and expansion at a cost to other nations and at a cost to the United States as well. If any of these fools need any more convincing of the dangerous world we live in now, they should look at what has happened in the Ukraine War. Two European countries, Finland and Sweden, both neutral countries, see the danger to themselves and are now for the first time in their history willing to join the NATO alliance. Taiwan wants America’s protection from China. If Taiwan falls, then the Chinese military may not stop until it takes the American territory of Guam and the U.S. state of Hawaii. As I said again, the United States is the defender of smaller nations.