It can’t always be America’s duty
In 1972, my wife and I made a long-awaited visit to the home of our exchange student, Ines, who was by then married and working as a translator in Brazil. One couple we met were her Aunt America and Uncle Darcy. Ines was put to work as interpreter since they spoke little English, and sadly, I only spoke American.
The main subject Darcy wanted to convey was this: America is such a great county and has shown such power, that she must assume responsibility for the state of the world. Any radical or violent eruptions worldwide must not be tolerated, and it is up to us to prevent such tragedies. In short, he insisted that we Americans police the world.
I took exception to this. My response then was, and still is, that it would be too costly to taxpayers, and if our government attempted such a policy we’d have a taxpayer revolt. Darcy and I argued this point, wearing poor Ines out. He never conceded his point, nor could he persuade me to his view.
How could anyone have predicted that it would take nearly 40 years before we taxpayers would embark on this very revolt? It’s past time to bring all our troops home.
