national security essay

Robyn Pulgarin 9/16/13 English 1A

America’s National Security: Outside or Inside Threats?

            What is National Security and the purpose of it in this country that we call America? What are the factors that contribute to the making of this “theory”? People of this country that we call America have different standpoints on where our national security should be focused on and where the threats of our country come from. Two of the clearest points that this country usually sides with is outside threats; for example, other countries that implement terrorism in their people and can potentially bring a form of attack on this country; and inside threats, social problems that can in the future affect the overall standing of this country in the future.  Even though the most logical idea to agree with is that outside threats will affect this country, the reality is that that it is just a diversion for the inside threats that the government has to take care of and in the long run is what affects the country as a whole in many aspects such as the economy and among other things. The government should focus on the inside threats that this country has because in the long run that is what makes the country look good , it stabilizes the economy, and most importantly, it will go toward the right path to have a prosperous America in the near future.

        

                America is viewed as the most prosperous country in this world due to the fact that most people around the world have the ideology of the “American dream”. But what is the American dream? Is it being part of that 1 percent that earns $380,000 or more, or is it earning $33,000 or less working a minimum wage job like jack in the box? Is it having a nice car, a somewhat good-looking house in the suburbs, and a nice family? Who knows what it means to live that American dream. In reality none of the American dream is true in an average family, only in Disney movies because the reality is that a lot of homes since 2007 began to get foreclosed and also a lot of car loans couldn’t be paid off due to the large amounts of interest they had that it was ridiculous. All of this caused a recession in the United States and until this date it just began to go downhill that it moved a lot of numbers down that now there’s a new type of “poverty” that describes the people who lost everything because of the recession. Now until this date the poverty rate of this country is of about 15.1 percent, and who knows where this is going to. The fact is that no matter what type of situation you live in education is the key to make a society prosper.

             

                 Education in the United States is essential because it takes the role of freedom, because you in theory have an equal opportunity to study in this country and it’s your choice to accept the education or not and to go against it. But why is it that the education centers are in bad condition and lack the latest technology while others are the complete opposite? Where is the equal opportunity? And not only are that, the majority of children studying in these centers impoverished to the point that they can’t do some homework assignments because they lack the technology at home to do it. We have to keep in mind that this world as it goes is becoming so dependent in technology that it is a shame how this country that is great in other people’s eyes can’t give the basic technology to 21.6% of the nation’s future, which is believed that they live in poverty. Where is the help of the government to these children if the point of making a strong national security is to make the children feel secure of society’s economic and social struggles first? And how can that happen if a large chunk of children are living through them? Willie “J.R” Fleming, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign said in an interview “our struggle is related to education, labor, and housing cuts- all of these struggles are intertwined.”(pg 97) In order to reverse the effect we need to analyze America’s social and economic struggles first and then spread out, like the rock that is thrown at the water and the waves spread out.

        

                 Obama gave a speech about Syria’s struggles when it comes to social problems that they have with a group of people and the government. Sure it is good to be informed about it, but why does this have to reflect on this nations national security issue? Just like he said in his speech referring to what the veteran wrote on his letter that was sent to the president; “we should not be the world’s policemen”-Pres. Obama. How does the gassing of children and innocent people reflect a hit on our nation’s national security when we have nothing in this nation that correlates with the issue that is happening in Syria? It’s not like our government would do something of the sort to control people if Obama said in his speech that almost 98%of the world is against using those types of weapons because they agreed on it. So why is he saying that our national security should be focused on outside threats? It just doesn’t make sense when the problem that is happening is that this nation’s youth are suffering because the lack of educational opportunities and the new type of poverty that is spreading throughout this nation’s cities and towns that didn’t have any of the sort happening. We should be focusing on how to bring poverty down and how to help the future of this country prosper, as “poverty is 21^st- century- style slavery…”(pg 103). We don’t want to have that happening again, as the whole idea of the violence that led to the eradication of slavery would not have any significance behind it. And that is what national security should be focused on, to make sure every kid in this country has the opportunity to deal with society’s problems and be able to fix it without any violence if possible. And we want to minimize the relationships that can lead to problems; or in other words, fix those relationships.

         

                  If we don’t start from the internal problems and then go out, then it will almost be impossible to makes the country look good in other peoples minds,  stabilize the economy, and most importantly, lead this country toward the right path to have what we really want, a strong national security. The government should make sure the children who are suffering here are taken care of first before they get involved in another country. They have to keep that mindset that if we don’t hurt you, then you don’t hurt us. We have to remember that the children are the future, and with them lacking education, then how are they supposed to deal with threats when they really need to? National security is a multi-step     process to handle it, and with one step at the time, it can be accomplished.

Bibliography

 "President Obama Address To The Nation On Syria! - FULL SPEECH!! - 9/10/2013."YouTube. YouTube, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: Smiley, 2012. Print.