The G8 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these 8 countries represent about 65% of the world's economy.
At the recent summit of the G8, an addendum item involved these countries pledging 60 billion US dollars of aid to Africa, to help fight disease and HIV/AIDS. While Bono may not think that is enough, it is still 60 billion more than was earmarked before and certainly no drop in the bucket. What disappoints me is that the US is pegged to provide $30 billion of that total.
Now, granted, that the US has the largest economy of any of those 8 countries. However, Germany and Japan in particular have strong, thriving economies and Canada, UK, France, and Italy are no slouches—they just don't have the same population as we do. Russia's economy comes and goes, but they are still pretty solid. So why is the US taking half of the burden?
When the world asks for UN help or peacekeepers to assist them, they are really asking for US assistance. Why is this?
When the December tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, America barely gave anything to it, in comparison to how we react to many of the crises around the globe—yet we gave more than any other country even in our reticence to send aid!
I am reminded of the story The Open Boat, by Stephen Crane, wherein a group of four men are trapped in a small boat. The four men struggle to reach shore after their ship sinks. Each of the three men uses the refrain, "Can you spell me?" to the oiler, who is the biggest and strongest and is not injured. They need him to take part of their turn at the oars as they row to shore.
However, once they get close to shore, and devise a plan to reach it from the boat through the rocky shallows and pounding surf, the only man who doesn't succeed is the oiler—all his efforts to get them close to shore on the behalf of those with him cause him not to have the strength or energy left to swim to shore when their small dingy capsizes.
I am starting to wonder if America is the oiler. Everyone expects us to bail them out, to be the world's police force, and to be the savior of their particular cause. And we do, as we feel it is our place to be that shining example of what is good and right in the world (even if what we think is good and right seems to have undergone a dramatic shift recently). And each time we do, we spread our armies a little thinner, our economy gets a little weaker, and more of our jobs go offshore and overseas.
Our economy right now is a house of cards. The situation with the so-called war on terror has weakened our strength, our resolve, and our economy in further ways (most especially by the rocketing costs of oil). We have record deficits in nearly every area of the economy. Our moral cache has taken a huge beating since turning our attention from terrorists to Iran specifically. Our so-called allies in France and Russia are constantly undermining our world position and funding those things we have asked them not to (including Iran, North Korea, China, and other rogue nations).
I think it is time for America to look inward. We have many problems here in this country that we are not addressing; homelessness, violence, environmental issues, continuing racial tensions, an economy on the brink of collapse, partisanship, and a judicial system that is running amok. We need to take four years and be more insular. We need to go back to the days of FDR and JFK and create public works or create a sweeping plan that can create jobs, reinvigorate our economy, change the direction of the country, and invest in our future. Something that we can accept the help of the other nations with, if they wish to participate in it, but that we keep primarily here, creating jobs, excitement, and a willingness to invest in our own ingenuity and resolve.
Maybe that plan is simply new road construction, new dams, building more nuclear power plants across the nation, and/or re-doing the levee systems in various places in the country. Maybe that plan is putting a man in orbit around Mars by 2020 or putting a small colony on the bottom of the ocean or up on the moon. Maybe the plan is something global that we simply do primarily at home (like maybe creating desalination plants and agricultural reform to Africa, or bringing the rest of the Americas into the 21 st century and helping them to become more of a factor in the world's economy, similar to the Panama Canal project).
I do not know what it is, but we need to focus for a time on ourselves and seek to solve some of the rampant problems plaguing the homeland. We need to stay out of world politics for a while and let the rest of the world take care of each other. By doing so, maybe the rest of the world will also learn not to rely so much on us.
Now, obviously, we cannot withdraw in a day from all of the things we have our fingers in now, but we can limit our interactions slowly and reallocate money, time, and labor elsewhere over the course of a year or two.
Iraq? We freed them from a tyrant and gave them the building blocks to democracy. It is now up to the people of Iraq to decide if that freedom is worth defending. Until they take up arms against the insurgents themselves, rather than aiding and abetting them, we cannot win there. But, if they do, our capitalistic society will happily move into a free, safe Iraq to make a profit.
North Korea? Why are they so focused on us? They want our money and our business. They look south and see how much a difference it has made to South Korea and they want that. All we need to say is this, "Stop your human rights violations, stop this posturing, open your borders to mutual trade, and our companies will gladly move in and boost your economy. It is that simple. That's capitalism." And then leave. Let them figure it out. Let other nations help them if they have problems along the way. Something similar can be said and done for every other conflict and crises around the globe.
We need to focus on ourselves, solve some internal, home-grown issues, and then reemerge stronger than ever to lead the world. Until we do so, we will constantly be spelling the other nations a little bit. Otherwise, if/when our boat overturns and we are forced to swim to shore, we may not have the strength to make it.
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