reflection week six

this weekend, as you may know if you have already read Ashley's blog we found an online spoof of School House Rock entitled Pirates and Emperors which I recommend you go watch as it's really funny, yet completely biased. Though it is full of controversial topics, I would like to examine just one small part that some may have initially seen as inconsequential.

At the end of the video, a duck decides that it is no longer a duck. This, however, backfires as the duck-hunting bomb that the duck fired still saw the duck for what it was. This is, I believe, a perfect example of constructivism as it discusses the duck's identity; Though the duck may want to change who it is, the rest of the world disagrees; who/what it is seen as is affected by the opinions of others. Because the duck is blinded by it's own ignorance as to what it actually is, it is unaware of coming danger and thus suffers immensely (aka getting blown up).

Though I do not think that we should have to, the United States has, over time, made itself a global police force. If, for some reason, we were to decide that we no longer wanted to police internationally, we could claim that we had resigned and turn our backs to the cries of countries in need; however, like the duck, I believe that we could/can not run from this job as it has become who we are, it is our identity. Other nations depend upon us for protection and thus would not take our resignation well. They would continue to assign problems to us; these problems would pile up and eventually our ignorance would come back to bite us, as we are smacked in the face by a major global crisis on top of the smaller problems. (aka not quite blown up but basically screwed (no other phrase captures that sentiment quite right...))

While we may want to leave Iraq quickly as our military is straining under the current burden that it imposes, moving out before it is stable would simply mean running from our problems. A weakened Iraq with few U.S. forces present would, as we discussed at the pizza dinner, pretty much be an open invitation for invasion by Iran. As the United States avoids its prior engagement, Iraq, Iran would conquer the area, which is most likely bad news for the U.S. as they are not particularly fond of us; our quest for alternate fuel methods would, out of necessity, be moved to a front burner as gas prices would surely skyrocket at least temporarily.
i.e. More hybrid cars! Go Sierra Club! It's upsetting how, as we discovered from the President's biased opinion not to demolish the domestic content rules, America's domestic politics are killing the earth...
Such would be the outlook of a world temporarily shunned by the U.S. If not for the crisis that would occur in the middle east, I would advocate such an act as it would force us to become greener... and all of this comes from the denials of a duck.