The current crisis in Iraq has once again made a lot of people think about the future of our country and the United States government.

It was triggered at the end of last month when Baghdad announced that it would no longer cooperate with United Nations inspectors looking for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

This is a problem that the United States should care about because more than likely, these weapons would be used to destroy us.

This is also a problem that should be taken care of promptly and efficiently.

Although I have a few friends that are in the process of being sent over to Iraq to prepare for war, I still say let’s just take care of the problem and bring our soldiers home. Throw ’em on the grill and fry those puppies for supper before they do it to us!

The Gulf crisis is a unique problem that we should be involved in; however, it is definitely one of the few that we, as Americans, really have the right to butt our noses into.

I have always believed the United States of America to be the best country in the world, and I still do.

However, there are a lot of problems right here in our own country that we need to focus on before we go help every country that comes crying our way for assistance.

The United States is a country of great strength, so I often wonder why we don’t use that strength more often to help our own people? Why don’t we focus more on working out our own economy or solving our wars on the streets?

These are problems that affect the average American every single day.

I lived in London during the summer of 1997, and I met people from all over the world. As I introduced myself and they discovered I was an American, their attitudes instantly turned negative.

They hated me for no other reason than the fact that I was an American.

As they got to know me, they helped educate me about why they had such negative stereotypes toward me as an American. The answers were unanimous.

From South Africa to Australia, and Europe to China, people are sick of the United States government butting its nose in where it really doesn’t belong.

The Gulf crisis is one that we need to be involved in to help us to provide safety for our futures.

I don’t understand what purpose we had in killing over 100 people in Africa 10 years ago when there wasn’t even a war that would affect us in the long run.

It was a war amongst Africans, and it didn’t even have anything to do with us, but because we were trying to make peace and save everyone on the planet, we still lost soldiers.

This is just one of the many stories that my new foreign friends enlightened me on.

I am not placing all of the blame on our government; it is also the fault of the foreign governments that come crawling to us for help.

At the same time, though, most individuals of these countries that we’re trying to help, literally don’t want us there.

You usually shouldn’t go where you’re not wanted or truly needed.

I just think that sometimes we need to know when to say “no” and when to mind our own business.

When I lived overseas, I had the opportunity to look at this country from another viewpoint. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, we do act like we’re better than most countries, and we do often put ourselves in situations that we don’t belong.

As the saying goes, “Nobody is perfect,” and our country is no exception to this rule.

We have enough problems to deal with, such as our constant struggle to better our own economy or our never-ending battle with all of the whackos that are running around the U.S. of A.

America is a beautiful and wonderful place to live, and it is truly a privilege to be a citizen of this fine country.

We need to focus more on our own problems for a change. Americans should take some of the time we put into helping other countries and make the United States of America the best country we possibly can.

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Amy Hillman is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Grand Junction.