by Catlin Hogan

Created on: August 14, 2008

The United States has had its international reputation severely bruised over the last five years. The United States government has been referred to as the world's bank, the world's police force, and the world's leader. I am sick and tired of the President of the United States being referred to as the leader of the free world, the President of the United States is merely the leader of the United States.

After September 11th, 2001, the United States was determinedas well they should have beento take down the perpetrators of the heinous acts in New York City, Washington D.C., and Shanksville Pennsylvania . Many feel, not only in the US, but also in other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries, that the military action that the Armed Forces took when it entered Afghanistan were merited, and I would be one of them, but there is no proof that Iraq was harbouring terrorists or weapons of mass destruction. There is a book what was released recently that stated that declassified CIA information admitted that a letter that turned up stating that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was in fact fabricated by a convicted member of a terrorist cell who made a deal with American intelligence to write this letter in exchange for his freedom.

The United States had indeed been the world's bank for a period of almost 15 years, roughly since the last recession in the early nineties. The only problem now is that the United Sates economy is starting to take a downward turn again. Many countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) feel that crude oil should start being traded in Euros because of how drastically the US dollar has dipped in the foreign exchanges. While the US economy continues to slip, the government debts continue to rise, and if say, China was to perhaps...call in their loans, which isn't out of the realm of possibilities, that could spell disaster to the US Federal Reserve. The United States is in so much debt, they can no longer consider themselves the world's bank.

As war in the Middle East continues to escalate, the United States has played a leading role in many of these conflicts, but as tensions in Russia and Georgia rise to an unsteady boiling point, the US Armed Forces are spread very thin as it is and cannot afford another international conflict. While the US government will likely play a role diplomatically, if NATO and the United Nations were to send troops to act as mediators, I cannot see how the US can physically handle another mission.

These are only some of the reasons that the United States needs to stay where they are, or even better, get out of some of the military situations they are in at the moment, if they continue to "put their nose" where it doesn't belong, I would imagine their international reputation will continue to be tarnished.

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