Power

I used to think that the people had control, then as I grew up, I thought the U.S. government had control, now after reading our assignment, I realize that many people have control. It just depends on what situation is trying to be controlled.

The people say they do or do not want something, and the government may or may not listen. If the government wants to do something, and it only affects the United States, then they do it. If it affects the world, then you have the leaders of other countries, and the U.N. to deal with. We can’t even go to war without other countries supporting us.

Among all the countries, and organizations at power, I do think the United States has a majority of the power though. Look at what the text says on page 382 about the Iraq war. The majority of the people didn’t want it, but the United States did, so they took wrong information about WMD’s, and got the U.N. to back us in finding the WMD’s, and so we went off to war saying that Iraq was not complying with the rules the U.N. set up, and were hiding things. You have the U.S. with a majority of the power, but they would not have been able to do it all without the approval of the United Nations. The power just seems to flow from one governmental agency, or country, to another.

The people seem to have more power during an election year, but then again, most of what we are demanding is promised, but rarely followed through on, so we just keep letting ourselves be duped it seems. The people want something a certain way, the government says okay; they get elected, and then make excuses as to why it can’t be done.

I do think that in our country, the people have much more of a say/power, than other countries. We don’t have the type of censorship the book talks about on page 389, such as in China. I think it is interesting when the text is talking about interest groups on page 396. If someone in power has an interest in something, that thing gains more power, such as when Vice President Cheney was interested in hunting and guns, and supported the National Rifle Association. They gained more power.

Finally, I really learned a lot about the power the military gives a country. As explained in the text on page 402, the United States has a much larger military budget than any other country. This gives us fighting power, and therefore gives us world power. I never associated the two before.

Overall, I am very happy to be a U.S. citizen, and glad we have the freedom we have, I just wish the government listened to the people a lot more.