Americans Need to Stop Jumping the Gun With the Threat of War

On Sunday, despite constant threats of sanctions and the risk of having the nuke shot down, North Korea launched a rocket. According to them, this rocket was to get a satellite into space while in American official’s eyes, this was a chance for them to get more research on how their missile program could be improved. The US and Japan had both mobilized missile intercepting ships and vehicles so that if there was any threat to either country, the missile could be intercepted.

Fortunately, the missile was a dud and there was nothing to worry about. Granted, they gained more information on how to better their missile; however, that is better than them launching a nuke at either America or Japan. What’s interesting, though, is just how scared Americans were after this and how quick they were willing to go to war again because of their fear of some sort of an attack on them. According to a poll conducted by Rasmussen, 57% of people wanted a military response to the missile launch. More interesting was the fact that it was only about 28% who were firmly against military intervention.

Perhaps I am crazy, but I thought we were done with the idea of invading countries just because we’re a little afraid. Isn’t that how President Bush was able to convince us to invade Iraq? We had a bit of fear and the next thing you know, we were sending in our brave soldiers to find weapons of mass destruction. In other words, our fear led us to spend billions and billions of dollars as well as the death of thousands and thousands of people so that we could find…nothing. I digress…

Can someone tell me why Americans are so quick to jump on the military action bandwagon?

We were so quick to believe in the invasion of Iraq and then, we slowly and very carefully began to hate the idea of being in war. Now, we are saying that we need to pull out regardless of the consequences to the country. I can understand people being afraid of the idea of North Korea having nuclear weapons and the use of them. However, for so many people to suggest that we should have military intervention because of the launching of this rocket, it shows that our country is easily startled.

One of the most dangerous things that we can do is show people that we are afraid. By showing we are afraid, people are able to pick and tear at our fears. By feeding off our fears of terrorism so soon after 9/11, President Bush was able to gain the support he needed to invade Iraq. We cannot allow something like a rocket being launched to scare us into spending billions of dollars to have military intervention.

So long as there are diplomatic actions available, it is our global responsibility to continue dealing with this in that fashion. For us to intervene militaristically, there needs to be some serious risk to our national security. Just because they are testing a rocket does not mean that they’re going to attack us. It means that they are continuing to test their rockets. If we freak out and attack them, we run the risk of a considerable number of consequences.

Americans need to stop jumping the gun when they are suddenly scared of something. That is dangerous to our country. We can’t just get scared and go, “invade!” If we do, all we are doing is further damning our country to more frustration, more debt, and more internal conflict. We should never have gone into Iraq and that should be the lesson to Americans. If we continue to make that mistake, I am afraid of what will happen to the United States.