Reaction to "Blowback"

First, this article challenged me to look at the United States in a way that I had never really thought about-that the United States is really an empire. I had never really considered the U.S. to be an empire, simply because I thought that all empires ended at least 100 years ago. But, after being presented with this article, the U.S. certainly does seem to have built quite an empire. We influence much of what goes on in the world today, either directly, indirectly, or in ways that only certain people know. We are always trying to find the best way to better ourselves-no matter what price other people in the world have to pay. It certainly makes me uneasy to think that the U.S. government is doing a lot of things that I don't know about, especially if those actions are going to jeopardize the safety of innocent Americans. "Blowback" is an unfortunate consequence of the way the U.S. pursues foreign policy and the way the U.S. attempts to remain on top of the world. Most surprising to me was the fact that the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am Flight was retaliation for the Reagan administration's aerial raid on Libya! All those innocent people were killed probably without even knowing anything about this raid. Who knows what will happen to us in a few years, as who knows what the government is secretly doing at this moment?

    Further, I do not necessarily agree with Johnson's assertion that terrorists attacks are one type of "blowback". Terrorists are usually unaffected by American policies; they just hate America for whatever reason. It was also surprising to me that, at one time, Osama Bin Laden was actually supported by the U.S. to help drive the Russians out of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, we upset him by putting our soldiers in his home country, Saudi Arabia, which apparently is against his religion. Now Osama is the man terrorizing the country and remains one of our greatest enemies. 

    Finally, the United States needs to be more careful with its foreign policy. Firing cruise missiles blindly and with the wrong information is never a good thing, especially when the targets are in Africa. The U.S. officials need to think through their actions AND their consequences instead of acting at the spur of the moment. The U.S. must be more careful with the routes it is taking, and U.S. officials must also consider the negative effects that their decisions could have on innocent American people years down the road.