We need a foreign-policy geared for the 21st century, not the 12th.

We have been one of the world's worst aggressors for over half a century. We seem to be stuck in the bully mode, incapable of switching to a more civilized national persona based upon compassion, not aggression; aggression,in spite of our rhetoric, is actually our national policy.

As the continuing Middle East revolutions clearly demonstrate, more revolutionary progress can be made overnight with cell phones than we have been able to make in, for example, Afghanistan, in over a decade. People talking to people are bringing about rapid change for the first time in thousands of years in the world's most backward region. In a matter of months, not years, a few countries in the Middle East have been able to become less fearful and more democratic countries. This is occurring not because the US is investing heavily in nation rebuilding by invasion, but because the people within these Stone Age civilizations are demanding change in a coordinated, organized fashion.

In other words, we can finally butt out of everybody else's business. We can leave the world’s country rebuilding to each country's own next generation to accomplish by themselves -- by phone, and begin to rebuild our own tattered country. Sure we can continue to help our poorer nations out, but with schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure. The idea of blowing an entire region back into the Stone Age, at a cost of countless lives and trillions of dollars, just so a few of our country’s warmongers can make more billions, is barbarian at best, and just plain illegal, counter productive and stupid policy.

Folks, we can do better, and we can do it almost overnight. We simply need to replace the greediest, most corrupt members of our Congress with a better class of people. However, with big-money influencing elections all over the country, that is not likely to happen. We are a nation of sheep people, easily misled or misdirected by the best advertising campaigns money can buy. Instead of strengthening our freedoms and liberties we are ceding them to the rich and powerful en masse.

Millions of our young are being conditioned to believe war is a necessary and desirable part of our nation's ongoing military history, instead of the deplorable, mindless, murderous business it is. By moving millions and millions of our young people through our war machine our nation is becoming more barbarian by the year, not more civilized, particularly when combined with our nation's declining intellectual capacity. Heaven forbid our misguided leaders should be encouraged to use our own trained military muscle on ourselves. Whoops, too late!

We claim to be the world’s leading example of democracy, but our policies are backward and inhumane. Can anybody seriously doubt that the world's poorest nations would appreciate us infinitely more if we helped build them up, instead of blowing them up?