As a citizen of a country whose “duty” it is to get involved in every international conflict, I think we stop dominating every single international situation.

The excessive involvement of the U.S. is what has led to so many global conflicts. Ever since we have entered the Middle-East, we have only caused more tension and conflict. For example, when we decided to help Afghanistan years ago. We were going to aid them in the fight against Russia, but after we already helped them, we abruptly left for no reason, starting a long history of conflict. The few things we have solved, although important, are undermined by the losses that both we as a country have faced, as well as innocent citizens of our enemy countries. Had we chosen not to be so tangled in these issues, we wouldn’t be facing the repercussions today.

Furthermore, our constant involvement hasn’t actually done much to solve terrorism; rather, it has solidified the beliefs of Middle-Eastern countries that we are the terrorists. This is because we had no business going into their countries and causing so much suffering, which in their eyes, makes us the true terrorists. The fact that we went into Iraq, starting yet another war just because we suspected they had weapons of mass destruction (even though they we never found any) just shows how we are unnecessarily getting involved. If we had just taken a few steps back and not have been such a dominating presence there, we wouldn’t have made terrorism worse.

And even now, we continuously get involved in the Middle-East. Keeping U.S. defenses in Iraq is not helping. We’re not fixing anything by prolonging our dominance; we’re simply making matters worse for everyone. While some people agree that our involvement has made matters a lot worse, the mentality that we should fix what we have started is very counter-intuitive and just leads to a cycle of more conflict and tension. The day we decide to stop being the “world police” is the day where we are actually a step closer to world peace.