The American Identity Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Ameri set up Identity Crisis - Essay ExampleOn the other hand, thither were those who felt that American colonists had come to the untried World to leave the world of monarchy and authoritarian decree behind, to found a home for democracy and for individualized equality and freedom.The current debate in public opinion has to do with the American war in Iraq. There are many who believe that the United States, once an example for freedom and liberty, is acting homogeneous a compound, or even an imperial power in its handling of Iraq. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the sphere has sunk into a brutal civil war, which neither the American legions nor the Iraqi military can contain. These thinkers assert that, since there is no clear exit strategy for the American military, that President Bush has devoted his military forces an impossible task of restoring full order before returning home. Instead of leaving the host there indefinitely, these people argue, preparations sh ould begin immediately for troop withdrawals, since there is no clear rationale for their go along presence in the country. On the other side of the argument are those who believe that the American military has a duty to establish that order before it leaves, and that to leave any earlier would give terrorists a foothold in the Middle East and would leave a power vacuum that could end up being very dangerous to American interests.Paine, of course, was on the side of military action against the British government. He used highly incendiary language in his pamphlets in The Crisis, he wrote that tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. He explicitly compares the fight for American freedom from Great Britain to a religious battle between forces of good and evil. He scorned the sensibilities of the Tory loyalists, who, in his opinion, were sell out their childrens futures for their own short-term comfort he quotes the Tory tavern owner who said, Well Give me slumber in my day while playing with his young son. Paine argues that his concern should be more the future, and that he should think, If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Paines argument was that a swift military action against the British would serve to lance the boil of American servitude that would only pertain to fester beneath the pressure of further British acts of taxation and other forms of official oppression.Paines rhetoric is no tamer in his larger pamphlet known as Common Sense. He wrote, Now is the seed-time of Continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be like a name sculptured with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak the wound would dramatize with the head, and posterity read in it full grown characters. In other words, Paine felt his time stay to be a crucial one in the direction of the fledgling colonies they would either continue under British imperial rule, as would such areas as India and South Africa, or they could break free from their colonial ties and become a flagship for liberty in the New World. He uses the metaphor of writing on the tree to show how long-lasting the lessons of that historical moment would be.And just how permanent