Ugly American Foreign Policy Failure

Words: 2319
Pages: 10

In today’s Global War on Terrorism, it is important to apply the Special Operations Forces (SOF) imperatives in mission planning and execution. They enable U.S. forces to not only achieve their objectives, but also help foster long standing relationships with other countries. The Ugly American highlights many reasons American foreign policy fails throughout the world due to the manner in which we deal with foreign countries. It also shows a few examples of how our foreign policy could be successful throughout the world if we can change our attitude toward foreigners. Looking at the successes stories in The Ugly American, it becomes clear that applying the SOF imperatives in proper situations is a valuable tool for long-term success. Two examples …show more content…
wanted to show the Afghani people that we cared about their well-being. The U.S. did this by spending a lot of money on big projects. Just as Homer Atkins warned the Vietnamese against. They did not need big projects until they had the infrastructure to support them. The Afghans were not ready for many of the high priced projects their government wanted the U.S. to build for them. The U.S. spent millions of dollars fixing an old dam that was supposed to power many Afghan towns. The U.S. even brought in a new turbine for the dam so it could produce more power. However, many Afghan villages use generators for power, and the dam did little to help them. Similarly, the U.S. spent a lot of money building bridges, wells, and schools throughout Afghanistan. Still, we did not show them how to resource materials, build, or maintain them on their own. Over time, the bridges fell apart, and the wells stopped working. Leading to further resentment towards U.S. forces, since now it was the U.S. government’s fault that the bridges and wells did not work. The Afghani people also had little use for the schools. To make a living, they relied mostly on farming and manual labor. The schools would go unused, and again the Taliban would point out to the Afghani people that U.S. forces did not understand …show more content…
again changed its strategy to empower the Afghani government. This time the U.S. made the Afghani government take charge of its success or failure. Small groups of U.S. forces operated throughout the country in small bases, living side by side with Afghan people. If the Afghanis wanted to live, they would have to take ownership of security. The Afghanis were required to support and defend themselves. Creating a vested interest in the wellbeing of their village. The U.S. would train local police forces around these bases, but it was the Afghani government’s responsibility to pay the police forces’ salary and equip them. This made the Afghani people take ownership of their security. Having the Afghanis control their supply chains helped to fight corruption in their country. Now if someone tried to steal money or equipment, fellow Afghanis would stop them, they would be stealing from their