Dear Future President,

When you board a plane, you hear it on repeat, “...in case of an emergency, put your own mask on first before you help others,” so why doesn’t this rule apply to our national defense?

My name is Alexis and I am a senior at Sun Prairie High School. Understandably, I don’t necessarily have lots of credentials to be speaking about foreign policy, but it is still something that I feel is important to every single US citizen. My father served in Desert Storm and came back a disabled veteran. I think as the President of the United States you should cut back on foreign aid overseas until our country is stable itself.

America is currently being plagued by a great deal of hardships: racial disharmony, trillions of dollars in debt, a breaking economy. Why should our national defense be taking so much time, money, and attention away from our own problems to fix the problems of other countries? The current state of our military overseas is greatly focused on foreign AID, not national DEFENSE. The aid we are giving to other countries should first be given to our own. When flying, it is drilled into you by the flight attendance, “in case of an emergency, put your own mask on first before you help others”. That is a requirement for flyers, but why is it not required of our military? According to the public information released by the National Defense, in 2016 we have spent $585 billion dollars on National Defense alone. The national debt of the United States is $19 trillion dollars and growing every single second. In addition to the many problems national aid causes with our military, it is not making our position in the world any better. In fact, it’s actually making it worse. According to a Daily Mail article, based on a survey done across the world, other people view America as “dumb, aggressive, and very opinionated”. The fact of the matter is, America is no longer the best country in the world; so what right do we have asserting ourselves in other countries' conflicts? America is built of the foundation of the freedom and right to our differences and opinions, but yet the moment another country believes in a different political structure than we do, we feel we are superior and step into a situation where we are not needed, nor asked to be there. I understand that in certain situations, like the current terrorist state, America needs its national defense to defend itself. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. I’m saying there is a clear difference between national defense and foreign aid. In terms of the terrorist state, could it be possible that the other countries and belief organizations are against us because we hurt them first and involved ourselves in a fight that was not ours to fight? 

 The solution is quite simple- restrict our national defense to defense only and shift our trillion dollar focus to the aid our country needs. Once our debt is stable and I no longer see the violent disputes between citizens, then, and only then, can we attempt to regain our position within the world as a country that is able to come to the aid of others. 

While the plane of America is gradually coming into a crash landing, it is imperative that our masks are on and secure before we try to reach out to others to help.