The Western Hemisphere
And our foreign policy focus
Reading the news this morning I ran across an article about a drug cartel operated ranch in Jalisco, Mexico that was apparently used extensively for the murder of people. It even contained it’s own crematorium.
Two days ago the New York Times reported that the largest hospital in Haiti was burned by gangs.
In January Venezuela swore its President dictator into office for a third term following a rigged election.
These are just a handful of problems plaguing the Western Hemisphere.
Of course there is much good news in the “New World” as well.
Here in the United States, we are separated from Europe and Asia by vast oceans. These oceans have served, and continue to serve, important roles in our own national security.
We don’t have that huge oceanic separation from most of the nations that make up the Western Hemisphere. Given this physical closeness to the United States, it would naturally make sense that the countries of the Western Hemisphere would hold a great many closely aligned interests with our own.
Despite that, our foreign policy largely ignores those nations right in our backyard. Sure we get involved once in a great while, lodge complaints from time to time, and hold talks occasionally.
But the vast majority of our government’s focus is clearly on Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, particularly in Asia on mainland China.
Are there serious threats in those areas?
Certainly.
But should we focus on them so tightly that we largely ignore what is happening within those countries immediately surrounding us?
Certainly not.
Why don’t we make serious efforts to help Mexico root out the corruption and cartels tearing apart that ancient land? Surely a failed state on our border is a very bad thing.
Why don’t we help free the innocent people of Haiti from the gangs terrorizing them in the streets and in their homes? Surely the mass death of innocents right on our front porch is a very evil thing.
Why don’t we assist the legitimately elected leader of Venezuela depose the current illegitimate government? Surely an illegitimate government that has destroyed a rich nation’s prosperity, leaving citizens without so much as food security shouldn’t be allowed to stand.
In mentioning these things I’m not arguing for military intervention. Indeed our military adventurism within the Western Hemisphere hasn’t always gone well in the past, and we should not risk American lives and treasure without vital elements of our own national security at stake.
But we can help. Publicly and privately.
We hold vast intelligence gathering capabilities. Vast diplomatic power. Vast economic power. We should use them to help our neighbors.
Is there any good reason that we shouldn’t help?
Isn’t it misguided that our foreign policy apparatus and media focuses almost exclusively on problems halfway around the world from us, while largely ignoring the problems right next door?
We should focus more, I would argue a great deal more, on the Western Hemisphere. Our goal should be the creation of a democratic Western Hemisphere in which everyone is able to live in freedom and prosperity. A strong and secure Western Hemisphere able to withstand internal and external threats, economic, military, or otherwise.
Immigration seems to be the hottest issue of the day right now in the United States. The permanent solution to the problem is the creation of an economically strong Central and South America so that people from there don’t feel the need to come here to find opportunity. Shouldn’t economic opportunity be available to them in their own lands? Wouldn’t such be better for all, including the United States?
The United States should not ignore the world. We should be engaged in Europe, and Asia, and everywhere else where America has important interests. But we shouldn’t do that at the expense of those nations closest to us. Yet we have, and we do.
We focus on far away places because our ancestry is largely from those far away places. As St. Patrick’s day reminded us just this week, we naturally associate ourselves with the places from which our ancestors came.
But a thriving future demands that we pull back at least a part of that focus, and train it here instead. We as a nation need to begin paying attention to our own Western Hemisphere, working to make it a better place for all.
See, now you're on my beat. "Why don’t we make serious efforts to help Mexico root out the corruption and cartels tearing apart that ancient land? Surely a failed state on our border is a very bad thing."
Yes, a failed state on our border is a bad thing, and that's where we're living now. Mexico IS a failed state, the government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the cartels and has been for decades. The government of Mexico doesn't want any assistance, and in fact is anti assistance in the extreme.
Why?
Two reasons,
one-- the government IS the cartels at this point, why would they want our assistance in being not part of the cartels? That's like Gotti wanting assistance in eliminating organized crime in NYC. Two -- The US is viewed (and this is a historically accurate view) as someone who "helps" in central and south America by putting puppets in place, sending corporations down to do unto central and south America what the powers of Europe have done for centuries to Africa, and then splitting before the bill comes due.
Plus we are always a four year term away from "Eh, Central America is boring, lets go look at what Africa is doing."
So, how do you help someone who doesn't want your help? Remember, that guy in Venezuela was legally elected (the first time) because he promised people what they said they wanted! Well, when you want the impossible, the horribly possible is what you get instead, as citizens of every communist nation ever have learned to their sorrow.
What all of the western hemisphere has learned from the 1920s to the 2020s is that how America "helps" is by funding a revolution, propping up a guy that we like, no matter what the locals think, thus picking a winner and a loser, much like Europe did in the middle east for a couple hundred years.
Is that all we've done there? Well, no, we did a lot of good things too, but "the evil that men do, live long after them." That's what is REMEMBERED.
"Why don’t we assist the legitimately elected leader of Venezuela depose the current illegitimate government? Surely an illegitimate government that has destroyed a rich nation’s prosperity, leaving citizens without so much as food security shouldn’t be allowed to stand."
Uh, CIA Operation PBSuccess White curtesy phone, please. See also Pinochet, Iran-Contra, '76 Argentina coup, '71 Bolivia coup, 74 Brazilian coup, '73 Chilian coup, and on and on...
We don't have a track record that would entice the population at large of any western hemisphere nation to want our hands anywhere near them. So what would you have us do?
"But we can help. Publicly and privately.
We hold vast intelligence gathering capabilities. Vast diplomatic power. Vast economic power. We should use them to help our neighbors."
We have intelligence gathering capabilities, yes, but who runs that? CIA, DIA, NSA, and NRO. Those are names that are not in good color south of Texas.
Vast diplomatic power? Sir I think you are living in the past. Biden pretty much destroyed any vestige of diplomatic power we might have had, and frankly we didn't have that much south of the border to begin with. If you're not trusted, you have no diplomatic power. As I mentioned, south of the border, we're not trusted.
Vast economic power? We have had full sanctions, virtually every economic tool at our disposal deployed against Cuba since 1961, has it changed anything? We've had almost every sanction we can use deployed against Venezuela for twenty years. Change? NADA. See also Iran.
At the end of the day, you can not free a man, you can, at best hand him the tools to free himself. If he doesn't want to be freed, you can't do anything to help him. If you free him against his will, he will just go back to a new master. (See most of the middle east for object lessons, test on Tuesday.)
The best thing we can do south of the border, is first make sure that border is SOLID. I mean, ants can't get across the thing solid. Then offer to trade with the people we like, and refuse to trade with those we don't. Other than that, keep our hands out of it! Maybe in fifty years or so, they might trust us enough to offer help and suggestions, but I doubt it.
Thank you!
I could not agree more! Cleaning up our own backyard would be good! Especially before telling the rest of the world what to do.. or even interfere with their business...
International relations are important yet interfering and overreaching seems to have become a problem.. for gain of course.
The world would be a better place if we'd just focus on and solve our own messes first instead of distracting us with outside drama and foreign "stuff". Our grass is wilting :) and the solution is not out there. It is internal and local.