Selfishness

When I am usually catching up on my daily news I head to BBC.com and normally feel that I am being somewhat, if not completely unbiasedly informed. However, for this post I decided to look at some good old US of A reporting on CNN.com because the temptation to see how amazing the US government is portrayed was too tempting. The article I did find, is entitled, "Obama's calculated gamble on Lybia Strategy and is basically about if and how much the US government is going to be come involved in Lybia. http://www.CNN.com/2011/OPINION/04/03/larrabee.libya.west/index.html?hpt=C2. The key subjects are of course, Obama and the "country's" decision. I use these quotes of course because as we've learned from Loewen's piece, what our entire country of people decides is really just what the government and the president decide.
What I loved about this article was that it completely fit in with Loewens textbook writing approach. As he stated, "Textbook authors portray a heroic state, and, like their other heroes, this one is pretty much without blemishes. Such an approach converts textbooks into anticitizenship manuals — handbooks for acquiescence. [p. 216] And what does this article talk about? How Obama what's to only become a little involved and leaved the rest up to our European Allies. "He has rejected sending American ground troops and wants America's European allies, especially Britain and France, to assume greater responsibility for managing the Libyan crisis, with the U.S. in a supporting role." Yes this does make some sense, but, after reading both these pieces, I have to wonder if there is some underlying reason for the lack of involvement. Are we not becoming involved because we don't want to be blamed? What is the government getting out of this involvement or lack there of? Both of these readings have made me become very sceptical. The government has just become too concerned with its own interests. As stated best by General Smedley D. Butler, "I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers. ... I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints."(p.226)