Discuss the accuracy of Winston Churchill's description of the United States - Essay Example

and Number Winston Churchill and the U.S. Winston Churchill once said, “You can always count on Americans to do theright thing - after theyve tried everything else”(Thinkexist.com). In the latter half of the 20th century, and now, in the 21st, there have been a few countries who would likely agree with a statement like Churchills. Essentially, it appears that Churchill is saying that America will not do the right thing until that right thing has become the last resort. This statement, on the whole, is not very accurate.

The problem is, I believe, that nearly every situation in the world is colored with a shade of gray. Some people may label certain actions as right when it comes to a particular situation, whereas others will call it wrong. Most of the time, it is something in between the two. The United States frequently takes action, and it is very hard to determine whether that action was right or wrong. I think that for the most part, only history and hindsight will be able to reveal the reality. One example that I think illustrates this particular idea is the War in Iraq.

The United States took very swift action against Iraq after the September 11th attacks. I think that this action might be considered right by some as the U.S. couldn’t not respond to the terrorist attacks. Our country would have been viewed as weak and ineffectual if we hadn’t reacted. However, some people might think it was wrong that we attacked Iraq specifically because many of the terrorists on the hijacked planes were from Saudi Arabia, so some didn’t understand why we went to war with Iraq.

At the time, it was thought that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and was funding the terrorist organizations. However, American has learned since then that this wasn’t the case. I think this particular circumstance illuminates how muddled the concepts of right and wrong are in today’s society. I think that for the most part Churchill’s statement is largely inaccurate when looking at America’s decisions from an American perspective. While some countries may think that America does not do the right thing, I think that we try to do the right thing for our own country, which makes sense in the larger sense of survival.

Reference "Winston Churchill quotes." ThinkExist.com . Web. 28 Oct. 2011. .