Throughout its 232-year history, the United States has been a fickle, capricious country.
As senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, author Max Boot once wrote, "We have been betraying friends since our first overseas conflict, against the Barbary priates who captured ships off the African coast and enslaved their crews. To defeat the pasha of Tripoli, the U.S. made common cause with his brother, Hamet Karamanli. In 1804, American envoy William Eaton led a motley force of mercenaries and Marines across North Africa to install Karamanli on the throne. The offensive was called off prematurely when President Jefferson's envoy reached a deal with the pasha to free his American captives in return for [the princely sum of] $60,000. Karamanli was evacuated to the U.S., but his family members were left as hostages. Eaton raged, 'Our too credulous ally is sacrificed to a policy, at the recollection of which, honor recoils, and humanity bleeds.'
We should not sacrifice another 'too credulous ally' on the altar of a dishonorable and inhumane policy."
As the twenty-first century approached the close of its first decade, calls for a re-examination of the U.S.A.'s foreign policy were being heard from all corners of the political and intellectual spectrums. America had, for far too long, intervened in conflicts that were none of our concern, only to retreat when circumstances changed that might affect U.S. interests. Beating its chest after World War I, the United States championed "national self-determination" at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, yet ngelected Czehoslovakia and Poland when the Nazis arbitrarily occupied those countries shortly afterwards. Following Woodrow Wilson's lead of non-activity, the U.S. repeated itself after World War II. While publicly encouraging countries behind the Iron Curtain to seek their independence, the U.S. stood by idly as East Germans rose up against their oppressors in 1953. When Hungarians battled the Communists in 1956, it was dramatically televised by the American media, but the U.S. government did nothing. President Kennedy let Cuban rebels die or be taken captive instead of providing air cover for the anti-communist forces battling an aggressive Cuban army. When the Czechs revolted in 1968, the U.S. watched silently as the rebels were easily crushed. About that same time, the U.S. tried to stop a communist takeover in Vietnam, but tired of the games and left South Vietnam to its own devices years later, after 57,000 U.S. soldiers died. In 1953, the U.S. government helped install the Shah of Iran, only to abandon him in 1979. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush encouraged Iraqi citizens to "take matters into their own hands" and overthrow Saddam Hussein. Yet Bush ignored Hussein's heinous genocide as Saddam's gang of ruffians quickly stifled the uprisings.
It was no wonder most Iraqis were more willing to fight for the milita and insurgents than for a puppet government backed by the whimsical, unpredictable United States of America. Iraqis knew what the U.S. government wanted. And, it finally 'elected' a couple of stumblebum oilmen capable of engineering a 'war' that would bring all that easily-accessible 'black gold' to America's shores.
Gross mismanagement of war, and mercurial mind changes, helped portrait America as a country that couldn't be trusted to stand by its allies. The 'smart money' among Iraqis was that they were simply pawns in an American game that self-righteously called for bringing democracy and stability to the country. As soon as all of Iraq's oil was drained away, America would abandon Iraq and leave the civil war rebels drifting toward yet another dictatorial regime. As in Vietnam and Desert Storm, billions of dollars in demolished tanks, Jeeps, military equipment, and facilities would be left behind to slowly rust away. Americans were well known for not cleaning up after their military messes. They simply deserted their 'friends' and went on to another conflict that could reap fresh profits for the giant U.S. military-industrial complex.
O.U.T.R.A.G.E. was intent on repairing such hypocritical hyperbole. Interim Vice-President John McCain addressed this vital issue on a nationally-televised speech on Monday, June 23, 2008. "It's time for all of our friends and allies around the world to know that America can be trusted unconditionally," he stated. "Our erratic behavior is regretable, and unacceptable. The United States must become a staunch and steadfast friend if we are to be trusted throughout the world. I urge all potential political parties to give this serious thought as part of their political platform. Our foreign policy has all-too-often been self-centered, as we have looked out for the interests of America instead of the interests of the Earth." McCain's call for foreign policy reform was an issue that had not been addressed in any of the twenty-five resolutions introduced last January and February. The United States of America, now itself destroyed by bombs, earthquakes and hurricanes, needed to acquiesce to a new world order: one that would not allow for America to continue to bully its way around the world. America had to learn how to "play nice" and share its wealth with the rest of mankind.
War-mongers like President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were dead and gone. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and current Secretary of Defense Bob Gates had been killed. War-profiteers from companies such as Halliburton, Bechtold, McDonnel-Douglas, Lockheed, Sirkorsky, and countless others had all been annihilated. Bankers, lawyers, squanderous celebrities and athletes, media moguls, entertainment ghouls, peddlers of vulgarity, wealthy elitists, government bureaucrats, politicians, and all others whose existence served no community purpose in America, were dead. All the people on the top rung of the ladders to success, wealth, power and status were now extinct. There was no better time than now for the U.S.A. to revitalize its image as a world leader and global peacekeeper. Not only was it an appropriate time to do so, it was absolutely necessary if the U.S. didn't want to become a third-world, third-rate, third-class country.