So here we are, less than a month away from an election that seems to have the buildup of an Ohio State-Michigan game (minus all the public urination, of course). We sit on the couch, beer in hand, rooting for our favorite team, uh…candidate, through the debates and on into the big showdown. “Most important election ever,” they tell us. “This vote could change the future of our nation forever.” Whatever. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter if we elect John Kerry, George Bush or even Maurice Clarett. There’s a more powerful force dragging our country into oblivion, and it’s our nation’s collective arrogance: The “we’ll put a boot in your ass,” ethnocentric mentality that is slowly dragging us down.

As I was watching the debate on Thursday, this whole ethnocentric theme stuck out like Mike Tyson at a day care. “I know how the world works”, claims Bush. Oh, well that explains the mammoth-sized mess in Iraq – wait, no it doesn’t. “We need to be on the offensive, we need to spread freedom,” he babbled later. When the discussion switched to the current situation in North Korea, Bush scoffed at the idea of opening unilateral talks with the nuclear weapon-harboring country. I guess the old “cold shoulder” routine is what passes for foreign policy these days.

I don’t mean to spend this whole time bashing Dubya, but lets face it; Kerry hasn’t had the opportunity yet to make himself sound like an imperialist. If Kerry is elected, there is always the chance that we could end up in a similar mess. Why? Because we never, ever learn from past mistakes.

This wasn’t the first attempt at installing a foreign form of government in Iraq; Great Britain tried their hand at it after World War I. They thought that they could trot right into Baghdad and stick a king (of their choosing – sound familiar?) on the throne. Guess what happened? The Iraqi people – most of whom were eagerly anticipating the help that a superpower like Britain could provide – quickly turned against the invaders after poor planning and lackadaisical policy turned Iraq into pretty much what we are seeing today; a nation led by violent warlords and fear rather than by hope and optimism. Quite simply, they have had enough: Enough chaos, enough poverty, enough killing.

If these foreign invaders – the most powerful invaders the world has ever known – can’t keep the peace, well then, we’re going to get our country back ourselves. That’s what they did, that’s what they’re doing, and that’s what they will continue to do. These insurgents aren’t fighting Americans because they “hate freedom” as some would want you to believe. They’re fighting because they hate the way we barge into their country and tell them how great freedom is while we kill their families.

The widespread violence that erupted in Iraq in the 1920s and again in the 2000s is a result of forcing an unwilling people to uproot and discard their heritage, religion and culture for a foreign ideal that has never gained momentum throughout the history of the Middle East. The flames are being fanned by what is perceived as American arrogance and hypocrisy. It’s important to look across the table sometimes to see who’s staring back. Walk a mile in their shoes and try to feel what the Iraqi’s feel. Acknowledge your own arrogance and hypocrisy, and do something to remedy the situation that gets to the root of the problem.

Another option is to mercilessly bomb a country into the depths of the Earth until the billionaire president is found cowering half-naked in a dirt hole. That’s phase one. Phase two is all about surviving long enough to oversee some kind of election. Phase three is…

Scott Woods