Why A Change In U.S. Foreign Behavior Is Necessary

     I am preaching to you today to present a serious issue that is getting overlooked in all of the hype surrounding our financial problems in the United States. Our foreign behavior is boorish and needs to be changed. I would like to make clear that I am talking about our behavior and attitude towards other countries more than our foreign policy although both need to change. Our behavior is causing more problems than it is solving and it is costing us money in the process. I am first going to explain to you the issues with our foreign behavior, specifically concerning our Latin American neighbors but it will tie into our problems in the Middle East. I will follow that with an explanation of how this behavior negatively affects us. In closing I will tell you what we can do to remedy our relationships worldwide.

     The United States has become a signal of oppression in Latin American countries. We are seen as a country who preaches democracy all while supporting corrupt dictatorships that allow us to pillage natural resources. This has caused extreme dissent in the Latin American region. The feelings of the poor who also generally happen to be indigenous, are coming out in revolutionary ways. It started in Venezuela and has spread across the South American continent. Countries like Bolivia, Ecuador and the aforementioned Venezuela are being run by indigenous people for the first time. The economies of Venezuela, Argentina, and Bolivia are gaining momentum at a time when most of the world is in a state of decline. The reason these economies are doing better than in recent times is the current lack of an overbearing United States presence. Private U.S. companies have controlled the natural resources of Venezuela and Bolivia in the past and only recently have been expelled from those countries. With the expulsion of foreign control the democratically elected governments are now able to more equally distribute wealth to their citizens. Programs in both countries have sprung up including free health care centers, schools for children, cheap night schooling for adults, and aid stations that help people understand their rights under the newly drafted constitutions. In Venezuela specifically the literacy rate has increased to almost 94% which is the highest in the region and poverty has dropped from 55% in 2008, to 32% in 2009. The United States has also demanded that Latin American countries take part in our war on drugs. The last statement I just made can sum up most of the issues of the United States' behavior abroad. Other countries criticize that we get involved with their internal affairs, base our foreign policy on money making, spend excessive amounts on our military, and have an overall elitist attitude in our dealings. The president of Bolivia, who was democratically elected, decided to back out of the war on drugs in 2008. Bolivia has many different geographical regions including the highest capital city in the world, La Paz. I say this to tell you that in Bolivia they use the coca leaf to combat fatigue, hunger, and altitude sickness, not to mention putting it in teas as well. It is a tamer but more useful version of coffee. I bring this back to my main point now. It seems that whenever the United States is actively involved in other countries business, the economies of those countries suffer. The fundamentalist groups in the Middle East saw us pulling out of the Latin American countries and realized that we would need to get our oil from somewhere else. They saw themselves as the next logical target of the United States and reacted accordingly. If we had not behaved in such a harsh way towards our Latin American neighbors, the fundamentalist groups may have never felt the need to act out against us. After all the main argument of Osama Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri was against the United States' economic and social infringement in the Middle East.

     This behavior abroad has affected us in many ways, the most noticeable in our economy. The United States takes a hard line stance against governments we deem to not have our best interests at heart. I ask you. Why should another country, even an ally, have our best interest at heart? From this arrogance comes enemies. Enemies that our government feels are threats to us. In order to protect the citizens of this country our government spends exorbitant amounts of money on defense. There is a saying "To the victor go the spoils". What this means is that the victor in any conflict not only wins the subject of the conflict but additional perks which usually are economic. Whether it be slaves, jewels, fine metals or whatever the case, the spoils help make up for the money spent on the conflict. The issue the United States is currently having is that there are no victors and there are no spoils. We have reached a point in time where we are fighting ideologies that conflict with our own. Spending money to fight an idea will never work. It will only make the idea grow. It will only give it more credence which will only create more enemies.

     The solution to our problem is simple. Our behavior towards other countries obviously involves person to person communication. The key to improving relationships with all other countries involves treating every country, no matter the size, as equals. We don't need to act like countries have the wealth or the military might that we do but we must treat them with respect. When you respect someone they generally will respect you back. Many foreign leaders feel threatened by the United States because of our aggressive nature. So naturally when we start to encroach in their country they get defensive. We can stop all of that by being respectful. President Obama took the first step when he made a point to shake Hugo Chavez's hand at the Summit of the Americas in 2009 and bowed to numerous foreign and domestic leaders over his time in office. While some in the United States view this as a sign of weakness, most in the world view it as a sign of respect. The more we respect foreign governments the more likely we are to get beneficial trade arrangements where both sides are happy.

     I hope I made you think about worldwide relations today in a new way. The time of American dominance, or some would say imperialism, is over. It is time for us to move forward and act as one. If we establish respect and honor amongst our neighbors maybe others will follow suit. That way we can all establish lasting and lucrative economic agreements between countries and stop the economic downturn affecting many. There may even be a chance to lessen the gap between the have's and the have not's worldwide.