Ah, We're Finally Safe! Oh, Wait a Minute...

I love the arrogance of the American Government. As I'm sure everyone is well aware, there were a series of bombings in London early this morning that hit 3 train stations and one double-decker bus killing no less than 37 and injuring almost 700. Officials in London have said that they have been preparing for this for a while. One government source said that he knew something like this would be happening sooner or later; it was only a matter of time. So for the last 2 years England has been especially aware of the threat and has quietly been on a high alert for terrorist acts. I was obviously effective.

I don't say this because I want to make light of the event that happened in London, or to belittle the deaths of those 40+ people. The irony I find in this is America's response. First, the U.S. Government promised that our color code would not be raise because we are always on high alert for these kinds of things. This announcement was followed by this headline on CNN.com:

"Sources: U.S. terror threat level to be raised to orange for mass transit network in wake of London bombings. Details soon."

How arrogant can we be. Sure, we'll do a much better job protecting our subways than England did. Just like we were able to protect the WTC. I mean, let's be honest, the people who crashed planes into the WTC are the same people who bombed the parking structure just a few years earlier. We even knew that it was a target!

The really sad thing is that in the eyes of the world it seems that terrorism is winning the war on America. Obviously most people do not support terrorism, but then that's not the goal. The goal has always been to get the U.S. out of the Middle East and eventually destroy Democracy. Since this war began public opinion polls have show a steady trend of disapproval toward the U.S.; in a recent survey the majority Australians said they believe the biggest threat to the security of the world is the current American Administration.

Since the "revelation" that we should have never gone to Iraq the majority of the world no longer trusts us; the value of the dollar has plummeted, tourism has vastly declined, and the French hate us even more than they did 5 years ago. But seriously, even our biggest allies are scared of us now. Seriously, how can our buddies from down under be scared of us? How can the British people hate us? Hell, even Canada has been telling the rest of the world "yeah, they're our neighbors, but we don't like hang out or anything."

So the bottom line is that every time there is another terrorist attack in the world it will cast a shadow over the image of the United States (whether conscious or not). Every time a suicide bomber hits someone else's country they will think "damn Americans and their unjust war."

Of course, if we give up now we prove defeat. So what's the answer? I wish I had that but then again that's why I'm not in politics. All I want is a rational, non-warmongering approach from someone who wants desperately to end the violence in the world. Bush is obviously in this war for arrogant, self-serving, egotistical, and narcissistic reasons.

Here are also a couple of interesting facts I learned today about the US:

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

Read a bunch more interesting facts (Scary) about the US here.