Debates

I belong to a group on Facebook (or Fakebook, if you will) that is all about debating current topics. It seems most people on there would rather hate on those who don't agree with them than actually discuss the topic at hand. We can post about any topic, which depending on the "hot topic" of the day can be anything from racism to the president. There was a period of time where every other post was about racism. It got to a point where one of the founding members actually left the group and tried to close it down. It was a crazy few days to say the least.

Anyway, I write about this group here (not mentioning it by name and if you are a member please don't mention in comment) because recently someone posted about the US getting involved in other country's issues. More specifically, this person posted images (before and after) of specific countries. I am not quite sure if this person understands why we become involved so often, so I explained that there is this thing call the Truman Doctrine. For those unfamiliar, the Truman Doctrine allows us to act as "the world's police." It has never been rescinded as far as I know, and I teach American History in college. I've even looked into whether it's been rescinded; nope. 

Some might think that when Truman left office, that Doctrine ended. Not exactly how laws and other such devices work. When it was put in place, it was to prevent the spread of communism. Now it is used to prevent the spread of terrorism. When a country known to help or harbor terrorists becomes involved in conflict, the US typically goes in to "police" the situation. We either are invited by the UN or NATO. Sometimes the president simply makes an Executive Order if there is a direct attack on us in those countries. Much like Trump did a few times. 

Unfortunately, people who live in those countries are so brainwashed to believe that America is the aggressor that they believe we are harming them. Hence the person who made the original post in that group. As a veteran and American, I was actually appalled that the issue was brought up for debate. Most of the commenters actually felt the same as I did. Of course there were those Americans who despise our government and military who agreed with the poster. Alas, they will hopefully learn one day what is right and what is wrong.

So everything begs the question, would we rather fight this within the borders of our own country or abroad where terrorist cells are trained?