United States Military Functions as the Worlds Police - Essay Example

United States’ Military Functions as the World’s PoliceIn the process of acting as a dominant force in the world through the use of their military forces internationally the United States of America has always faced a number of challenges. The challenges include the resistance of such involvement from the American public and resistance of the same by countries affected by their international military involvement.This paper is going to look at five incidences in the last five years during which the United States of America used military forces internationally and the move was criticized both locally and internationally.

The incidents that are going to be looked at include:attack on Libya in operation ‘Odyssey Dawn’ in the year 2011; Operation New Dawn of Iraq in the years 2010 and 2011; Operation Neptune Spear which sending of two batteries of Patriot missiles and 400 troops Turkey in the year 2012; and Drone strikes launched on al-Shabab militants in Somalia in the year 2012.Looking at the attack of Libya in Operation ‘Odyssey Dawn’ in the year 2011 the most notable thing is that the attack was more political than it was for the sake of international security and stability.

The then Libyan leader, Colonel Gadhafi had been a non-cooperator with the western governments something that is believed to have put him in bad records with the government of the USA. In my opinion the attack was not really necessary.Operation New Dawn of Iraq in the years 2010 and 2011 is one of the involvements of the US military that is believed to have been highly unnecessary. Due to the period of the involvement a good number of the United States of America citizens believe that this must have cost the country a lot of finances that would have been used in solving the problems that the country was facing internally at that time (Lane, 2004).

Internationally, it was sometimes seen as a case of overindulgence of the internal affairs of another country.There are a number of factors of US history since 1865 that has led to the U.S’s rise as a world super power policeman.These factors include: their economic superiority and stability, which enabled them to spend on improving their military; the US-Spanish eviction from the Cuba war of 1898 which played a pivotal role in the establishment of the United States of America as the highest ranked world power; and the three years long war during which the US defeated the Filipino insurgents that helped them in gaining control over a point of geostrategic and trading significance (Meernik, 2004).

There are international incidents since World War II where America has taken on a policing role. They include: the evacuation of civilians from Cyprus when Cyprus was invaded by Turkey in 1974; in 1967 the united states of America sent military aircrafts and crew to Congo to help the Congolese government in logistical support that would help them in fighting the rebels; and the dispatching of electronic surveillance plane to Sudan and Egypt after the two countries requested for help after there was a bombing of a city in Sudan (Brands, 2003).

Research has focused on highlighting different factors that contributed to the development of international policies. They include: fight against terrorism; the need for security and stability globally; protection of the economic interests of the United States of America; and the hunger for global dominance.ReferencesBrands, H. W. (2003).The use of force after the Cold War. College Station, Tex: Texas A & M University Press.Lane, J. S. (2004). Use of United States armed forces abroad. New York: Novinka Books.

Meernik, J. D. (2004). The political use of military force in US foreign policy. Aldershot [u.a.: Ashgate.