The World’s Cop

At one time, in an earlier age called the “Space Age,” it was common to hear American Republicans complain that America was being used as the World’s Policeman. As usual, the Republicans were being disingenuous; but  we weren’t being used by other nations; rather, the rest of the world came to us for guidance. They came to us because they looked to America for leadership — but the real question is this: Do the nations of the world really need a policeman? In a world that sprouts dictators from any crack in the sidewalk, the current crop of world dictators is a veritable Rogues Gallery of Bond villains. Do they bring enough mass murder, genocide, anguish and terror to the field to warrant a policeman? Well yes, they do.

We need an honest broker to promote and defend democracy. The feeling here is, “Yes, but just not us.” But if not us, then who?

Our relatively egalitarian, relatively idealistic society was once well thought of by many other nations whose citizens liked our liberal democracy concept and looked to us to provide direction, a moral compass, and leadership. In the post-war world, most Americans were pretty good people. That’s how we became the “World’s Policeman,” and it worked fairly well. A politically stable two-party America took the job seriously until our “military industrial complex” caught up with our tolerance for greedy, corrupt people. We started policing the wrong people in the wrong places, and for the wrong reasons. We went from the “World’s Policeman” to the “World’s Hypocrite.” Now we need to work our way back because, damn, do we ever need an honest World’s Policeman.