SimplyMaggies

One of the American national holidays happened to take place two days ago, namely Veteran’s Day, and I think I had my fill of the American patriotism (at least for a long time).

As much as I respect all the soldiers and the sacrifices they and their families make every day (heck, I’m married to one!), I simply cannot stand when people start talking about Americans fighting for their freedom (when they refer to teh Middle East) or guarding the world. It makes me want to ask: “Who the hell appointed you the guardians of the world?!”

Coming form a country that was dominated and even controlled by another under the false pretenses, this whole American attitude reeking of oh-so-typical arrogance strikes a chord.

It is one thing if a country asks for help, as it was in the case of former Yugoslavia where civil war and the bloodshed got so out of control the people were forced to ask the NATO countries for aid. It is quite another, however, when one enters a country under false pretenses and stays there even though the so-called reason for one’s presence there has long been achieved. This, to me, is simply conquering and nothing else.

So many lives have been lost and continue to be lost every day for somebody’s screwed-up idea of freedom. And so I ask why do people around the world have to follow the so-called American way of life? Why can’t we decide for ourselves what kind of way of life we want without “the mighty Americans” coming to our “rescue” when we get it wrong?