Proud of America, dammit

The US is more than just a geographical entity. It represents an ideology, an important philosophy without which the world as we know it would not exist.

The world - particularly Europe - can't help but sneer in derision.

But people like me don't care. I'm proud of America and the American military. I haven't always realized this pride (particularly in my wasted youth), but it is based on the proveable fact that there has been no greater force for good in the world in the last century than the US and its forces.

In the last twenty-five years, the US military has overthrown dictators in Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, the Balkans and Afghanistan. Because of those wars, 40 million people live under better governments (not perfect, but measurably better). And the people of Iraq (25 million people) are likely to add to this total. The US military directly defends the people of South Korea, a democracy of 50 million people, and it indirectly protects Taiwan’s democracy of 23 million people. With US victory in the Cold War, the governments of 300 million people were freed from the ridiculous economic straightjacket of socialism. In addition, the US was responsible for the direct military protection of Japan (100 million people) and the people of Western Europe (200 million) during the Cold War.

And it hardly needs repeating: the US was decisive factor in the two world wars against fascism.

750 million people live under better government because of the US and her military. No other government, institution, charity or foreign aid program can boast of even a fraction of these historical accomplishments.

Many nations have fought alongside America in pursuit of these goals, and I do not mean to slight them. Some nations - like Great Britain and Austrailia - and full partners with a very similar forward looking world vision. Hundreds of years from now, when history books are written, they will record that these nations fought on the side of progress.

The good of the American influence doesn't stop with military prowess.

The US economy is the world’s biggest, responsible for one quarter of the world’s economic growth. For better or worse, our culture, our TV shows, movies and music are everywhere on the globe. This makes American culture the closet thing the a global culture that the world has. We make more, we consume more, we invent more and we give more than anyone else (the US gives more to charity than all other nations combined).

We also have the world’s freest trade policy (though it should be freer). And as a result, many nations of the world owe their economies to us.

It comes down to freedom. There is no freer nation in the world, and freedom (but more importantly, the free flow of information) is essential to economic growth. In a capitalist economy, the free flow of information tells everyone where the opportunities are, so that everyone has the ability to profit from them (the alternative is that the same sluggish companies have all the right information, but have no good ideas on what to do with it). In this way, you best insure that most able companies (or individuals) can be in place to take advantage. Likewise, when someone buys stock in a business, they can peruse the properly audited information about the company’s finances, all of it freely available.

All of this benefits the nation in a way that secrecy does not.

This, incidently, is why I’m not all that worried about China. At a certain point, they will realize that holding back the free flow of information is inhibiting their economic growth. Restricting information about companies will alienate foreign investment, and China will increasingly find that controlling information will hurt business. They will be forced to choose: yesterday’s tightly controlled but broken socialist system or the dynamism of a 21st century information economy.

I think they will choose wisely. And a government that cannot control information finds it difficult to maintain its aura of omniscience that is so important in a one party, socialist state.

Capitalism and democracy are necessary to one another: democracy is political freedom and capitalism is economic freedom.

Some people say we should be ashamed of America’s economy. It dominates the world, and that must be (so they say) unfair.

But I’m not ashamed. It means that we are industrious and inventive and, as a result: prosperous. The stagnant economies of Europe and the artificial economies of Asia should take note and learn the power of freedom, particularly the economic freedom we know as capitalism.

Capitalism, very unfortunately, is still a dirty word in many parts of the world.

There are still many in the US who don’t realize that the US has already won, and is pulling ahead, of the rest of the world. They sooth the losers – telling them that the US doesn’t play fair or some other rubbish – they comfort them in their ways and prevent them from reforming their systems to be more competitive.

This is nonsense. The European systems are rotting and desperately need to reform their restrictive labor practices, their trade policies and their overly protective governments. The Asians need to end the cozy relationships that their businesses enjoy with each other and with their home governments. Direct political control of economic growth (which is different from simple regulation, which IS important), as practiced by Japan’s MITI, rarely ends well.

It never gets sillier, though, than when people insist that Russia, Germany, France and China should have a vital say in – or veto power over - US foreign policy.

The US, they argue, is just another nation, with no claim to be more important than… say… Luxembourg.

It's comical when you think about it.

Russia, Germany, France and China (!) – four nations that have caused more misery than any others, giving the world Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon, and Mao. Four men who improved very few lives, and together killed hundreds of millions of people.

The principal goal of US foreign policy – the expansion of human liberty – is not a goal that should be subverted to the whims of others – particularly this motley crew.

The cause of liberty is too vital for debate or half measures.

If I ever came to know of any country more devoted to the cause of human liberty than United States of America, I would pack my bags and go there right away.

So far, I’m staying put. The future of the world – so far – lies between California and New York.

But the world will be a safer place if the future can include more nations. But Europe and Asia must evolve into freer economies for that to happen.

That, in a nutshell, is why I believe that the US is the last great hope of the world. Even if the world refuses to recognize it.

- posted by total @ 2/27/2004 03:54:00 PM .