essay 3 revision
YouSung
Essay 3 Revision
December 18, 2009
In Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare, Timon and
Apemantus represent the military culture today. Timon represents the
current U.S. military spending. Like Timon, U.S. military spends too
much money wastefully on wars that has no meaning. By doing so, the
U.S. is borrowing money from others in order to meet its demands of
sustaining its military. If this continues, America will become
bankrupt like Timon who mortgaged all of his properties and borrowed
massive amounts of money to continue his extravagant lifestyle.
Apemantus, on the other hand, is what U.S. should be doing. Like
Apemantus, U.S. should not be motivated by its greed. It should spend
money wisely and moderately on things that help its economy. By
following Apemantus, America could fix its economic crisis. In his
2009 book Limits of Power, Bacevich states that the U.S. is living
with three illusions. Those illusions are: reform the war into
something more humane, fight only when necessary, and support the
troops. America should be following those illusions yet it is unable
to do so because of its greed. If greed continues to motivate the
U.S., then the U.S. will not be able to get out of its current state.
According to the First Illusion, the U.S. promised
to “make force more precise, more discriminating, and potentially more
humane” (The Limits of Power, Bacevich, 2009, pg 127). America is one
of the superpowers leading in technology. When compared, America and
Iraq are on a totally different level. If Iraq have wooden baseball
bats, America have guns. The war in Iraq started on March 19, 2003 yet
it still continues. In their 2007 article “Can You Believe This War Is
Still Going On?,” Hightower and Lowdown states that “Almost two
million Iraqis have fled the country and only 30% of kids can go to
school.” Even with such advances on technology, America does not seem
to end its war against Iraq. The war clearly shows who has won yet
America still remains. Because of America’s presence, Iraqi children
are unable to get educated. Is this the humane way to deal with a
defeated country? Because of this, innocent children of the future are
suffering. By prolonging this pointless war, all America is doing is
wasting billions when it could have been spending it on its economy to
create a money flow. In Timon of Athens, Time enjoys an extravagant
lifestyle. Even though he was warned by his servants about his
financial situation, Timon continues to squander his money away. He
soon came to his senses when he had no more money to spend. If the
U.S. stays any longer in Iraq, it will soon become bankrupt like
Timon. America should realize enough is enough and pull its troops out
of the war.
According to the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine, “the
United States would fight only when genuinely vital interests were at
stake” (The Limits of Power, Bacevich, 2009, pg 129). The reason why
U.S. went into war was because the U.S. suspected that Saddam Hussein,
Iraqi leader, has restarted the nuclear weapon program. If that was
the case, America had all the right to invade and stop Iraq’s nuclear
weapon development; however that is not the case. No evidence of a
nuclear weapon program has been found so far. In a 2004 article “Iraq
war wasn’t justified, U.N. weapons experts say,” Blix stated that “Our
inspectors had been there…taken a lot of samples…no trace of any
chemicals or biological things.” So if that’s the case, why is America
still at war with Iraq? The answer is greed. America has become so
obsessed with capitalism that it lead the country to lose all of its
money. Instead of stopping, America decided to borrow even more money
from others so that it can still continue its lavish spending. America
has become so blinded by greed that even after the loan money were
gone, America began to look at other countries. Iraq has what most if
not all countries want, natural resources. In Timon of Athens, Timon
was a wealthy man who loved to spend lavishly. No matter how much a
person has, it will soon run out if spent recklessly. This is what
happened to Timon, who mortgaged his properties so that he could
continue his lavish parties even though he had no money left. This
eventually caused him to go completely bankrupt, leaving him homeless
and penniless. This is the future of the U.S. if it does not stop its
reckless spending on things that do not benefit its economy.
According to the Third Illusion, “the military and
American society had successfully patched up the differences” and will
“support the troops” (The Limits of Power, Bacevich, 2009, pg 129).
America should support its forces fully because they are the ones
risking their lives so that their families at home can remain safe
from harm. In her 2003 article “Campaign Unites Military Families,
Veterans Pleading to Bring Troops Home,” Wolfe states that “Susan
Schuman’s son writes home from Iraq complaining of poor living
conditions, skimpy water rations and dozens of daily attacks on U.S.
troops that go unreported.” The government does not seem to care about
its own troops. These troops are fighting with their lives yet their
living conditions are not met. People are giving more support to sport
stars rather than the troops who are fighting for the safety of
Americans. In Timon of Athens, Timon, after losing everything from his
extravagant lifestyle, asks his so called “friends” for help. Although
Timon has helped them without hesitation, his friends make up excuses
why they could not help him. This causes Timon to change from a happy,
giving person into a person who curses humanity. U.S. troops loyally
do everything of what the country asks of them. But when in the time
of need, the troops do not seem to get any sort of help from its own
government. This causes even more troop casualties yet all U.S. does
is send even more troops to replace the ones who has died in duty.
Troops are dying left and right yet the government does not seem to
notice the cause of it. Is this fair? No, it is not but life is
unfair.
In order to fix its economy, America needs to stop its
war in the Middle East. By doing so, America could spend its money on
things that would benefit the country. By leaving, America would make
everyone happy on both sides of the war. But according to his 2005
article “Why We Must Stay in Iraq,” Hanson states that “If we fled
precipitously, moderate in the Middle East could never again believe
American assurances of support for reform and would have to retreat
into the shadows.” This is not true because by staying what America is
doing is making the lives of Iraqis worse. Its presence does not
guarantee safety and ruins the social life of Iraqis. In her 2009
article “Iraq War Facts, Results & Statistics at December 10, 2009,”
White states that “U.S. 2009 Monthly Spending in Iraq - $7.3 billion
as of Oct 2009” and “All other nations have withdrawn their troops.”
How much more money is enough? America is not in a financially stable
condition yet it squanders its money. America should follow the other
nations by withdrawing its troops and leave Iraq alone. Everyone else
realized this war is pointless, America should too. In Timon of
Athens, Apemantus scorns Athenian citizens for their act towards
Timon. Although Apemantus warns Timon not to be trick, Timon does not
listen and becomes bankrupt. America should follow Apemantus by
spending its money wisely and distinguish right from wrong. America is
experiencing the consequences of war; it should learn from it and stop
before it gets any worse.
America should stop its war in the Middle East. Staying in war will
only increase debts and hatred towards America. It will also lose
lives of many brave soldiers and ruin the lives of Iraqis. In his 2007
article “How to Leave Iraqi,” Duffy states that “U.S. could save the
$10 billion a month that it is spending on the war and rescue the U.S.
Army and Marine Corps before they both collapse.” With $10 billion a
month, the U.S. could fix its economy, improving the lives of its
people. In Timon of Athens, Timon was the wealthiest man in Athens.
But in the end, he became homeless and penniless. Instead of following
Timon’s footsteps, America should follow Apemantus’. By doing so,
America will be in a better situation. In order to avoid this economic
crisis, America should stop engaging in pointless wars. This will lead
to more money available to be spent on improving the country. Even
though the economy is not in a good condition, people should spend
money for that is what makes the world go round.
Bacevich, A. 2009. The Limits of Power. New York: Holt.
Duffy, M. 2007, Jul. 19. How to Leave Iraq.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1644877,00.html
ElBaradel, B. 2004, Mar. 22. Iraq war wasn’t justified, U.N. weapons
experts say. CNN.com.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/03/21/iraq.weapons/
Hanson. V. 2005, Sept. 4. Why We Must Stay in Iraq. The Washington
Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202678.html
Hightower, J. & Lowdown, H. 2007, May 26. Can You Believe This War Is
Still Going On?.
http://www.alternet.org/world/52290/
White, D. 2009, Dec. 16. Iraq War Facts, Results & Statistics at
December 10, 2009. http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm
Wolfe, E. 2003, Aug. 13. Campaign Unites Military Families, Veterans
Pleading to Bring Troops Home. CommonDreams.org.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0813-08.htm