Jordan was just reaching to pull his victim up by his shirt when he heard a shout off to his left. "Hey, man, what do you think you're doing?!"
"Same thing I'm gonna do to you, loser, if you don't back off," Jordan growled menacingly.
"I'm sure you'd like to try," Michael glanced at the spectators. "Why hasn't anyone called the police?"
A girl spoke up, "Dude, the last time someone did that, Jordan beat him up worse than Taylor here. The guy hadn't even finished dialing before he was knocked to the ground."
"Didn't anyone at least try to help him?" Their silence was all Mike needed to answer that question. He turned back to Jordan, "Look, you better just leave now cuz you won't find me so easy to handle."
Jordan sneered as he took in Mike's lean five-foot-ten-inch frame. He poked Mike hard in the chest. "What're you gonna do to me? Slap me in the face?" He raised his fist to strike. Mike feinted to the right then landed a left hook to Jordan's eye. The fight continued, but soon it became apparent that Jordan was losing ground. His gang moved to join the fray, but they were met with unexpected resistance from the crowd. They couldn't break through to support Jordan. Mike landed another solid punch that threw Jordan to the dirt. He lay there panting and glowering, but made no move to get up.
"I think it's time for you to leave," Michael said. Slowly, Jordan rose and slunk back to his cronies.
"You better watch yourself, man!" Jordan spat back over his shoulder. Mike shook his head sadly as he watched the group stalk off. Taylor limped over and tapped him on the shoulder, "Thanks. I didn't think anyone was gonna help me."
"Well, you shouldn't have to worry about that anymore," Mike said, looking around. "I guess all you guys needed was for someone to step up and let you know that you can defend yourselves."
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So what would your reaction be to Michael? Until recently, I thought that everyone would applaud him as a hero; but I was wrong. Some people would call Michael, rather than Jordan, the bully. What is my premise for this statement? The war in Iraq. Let me draw some parallels for you. The three main charaters have obvious correlations: Jordan = Hussein, Taylor = the Iraqi people, and Michael = the United States and it's faithful allies. Obviously, the U.S. didn't just walk up and interven as Michael did -- we were attacked before we did anything. However, several things that Michael did parallel what the U.S. did. By talking to the crowd, he found out that Jordan had a history of bullying and being violent. Then he gave Jordan a chance to back off. For years, the U.S. and other countries through previous presidential administrations have been monitoring and warning Saddam Hussein. Even after September 11, 2001, the U.S. submitted to the United Nation's conducting inspections. Still nothing. Only then did the U.S. step out in force.
The ending, unfortunately, isn't as short and sweet though. There is more than one bully in Iraq, and when one is down another rises up to take his place. But now the Iraqis are learning how to form their own forces and government in order to fight back. Somehow this makes the U.S. a bully. The U.N. would rather have kept inspecting and threatening. It's just a lot of hot air, and really, I think that there's already enough hot air in the Middle East simply due to its climate. It's nothing new for them, so why should the terrorists pay attention?
There is also the objection that there are other countries out there that are just a oppressed as Iraq, so what made us choose Iraq? In all honesty, I thought of this too. Let's face it -- we're not God. *Gasp!* While Michael defended Taylor there could have been another young man in trouble down the street. Why didn't Michael help that guy instead? Michael can only help one victim at time; and the United States can only help one oppressed country at a time. When you look over the past century, the U.S. has helped many other countries. We have peacekeeping forces spread out all over the place. My question is, "Why aren't other countries doing more to help?" They're like the spectators, just standing there.
But now we're supposed to care what the world thinks of us as they sit there on their lazy butts. No names, of course. *cough*France*cough* Let me say that I don't give a darn what the world thinks. If they don't like the truth, does it make it any less truthful? If they don't do what's right, does it make the people who do the right thing wrong? The majority of the world has abandoned what used to be common decency. Bully? Call us whatever you want. I guess leaders are a thing of the past, and followers are our future. Future Leaders of America become Future Followers of America. Think about that.