A World Without the United States

What would the world look like without the United States?

I thought of this when I heard of our latest humanitarian aid payment—this one $51 million—to the Central African Republic. Half the population is in need of assistance. The fighting began as a civil war and has melted into a jumble of sectarian cruelties. Children are finding themselves fatherless, women are finding themselves raped, masses are without food, water, or medical supplies. And though our donation will not go far, it has meaning and will help some.

My thoughts then expanded to take in the full panorama of U.S. aid and influence. When refugees flood a country, we are there. When disease ravages, our doctors ignore borders and move in. Our carrier battle groups patrol the seas, our squadrons and divisions stand in readiness to protect our shores and our allies—a fact not lost on the close neighbors of Ukraine.

Bestriding the conflicts and tragedies of this world, generous to a fault with its borrowed trillions, is the United States of America. True, we patronize. Press releases from our Department of State, its finger raised in admonition, rebuke other nations when they can’t get along and ‘applaud’ them when they may benefit from parental encouragement. But there is another side, another metaphor. We are a lighthouse of kindness in today’s falling darkness of violence and want. Our hearts pound with outrage at injustice, our eyes tear up when a disaster starves a child or levels a city, and, always, we are among the first to step in as a shield, or reach down to console, heal, or bind up.

The history of the United States is a case study in brotherly love. In World War II we came in late, were part of the reason Europe survived, the only reason she recovered. In Korea our blood helped paint a line beyond which naked aggression would not pass. We flopped in Vietnam, spent more than anyone to give Kuwait its country back, and paid terror a house call in Pakistan. We are not perfect. In 2008 our bankers shot the global economy in the foot, but our tax payers handed it a golden crutch, and kept us driving Chevies.

The world has bestowed on us the loving curse of World Leader; criticizes us when we meddle beyond the seas; fumes when we do not right every wrong from Kiribati to Katmandu. We stumble and shine. We are human. But we are a light and a force for good. Where would the world be without us? Let’s hope it never finds out.