This weekend was the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Since then, President Bush has sent more troops to Iraq to take down the hostile government and try to establish a democracy. Apparently, we are responsible for other countries as well as our own.

No, wait. Back up a second. Why are we responsible for other countries? Who died and made America king of the world?

In a recent discussion in one of my classes, someone referred to America as a bully.

Before I go any further, let me define what I mean by bully. Remember when you were a little kid, there was always this bigger kid who liked to come over and mess with you just because, and you were much better off without having been messed with? Well, that’s what I mean in this case.

Now the patriotic side in all of us quickly responds with, “Hey! America’s not a bully!” But then the logical side in some of us starts to turn its rusty gears and says, “Well, maybe I could see how someone could think that.”

We as Americans are awfully narcissistic.

We have ourselves up on this big pedestal looking down on everyone else while still managing to stick our noses in the air.

We think because our country is so great and doing well, the rest of the world should do the same things we do.

Well, here’s a heads-up for all of you. Our country isn’t always doing as well as we may think. We’re not exactly what you might refer to as a “model country.” We don’t have a beautiful, flawless history that can be polished and displayed in some prestigious museum somewhere.

In the 1860s, our country was divided into North and South and engaged in a civil war. Before that war, the institution of slavery was legal.

In World War II, our country dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The list flows on.

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive natural disasters in American history, hit New Orleans, followed by “a failed city evacuation plan, a communications breakdown, a slow response by FEMA and the loss of the capacity of state and local officials to comprehensively determine the needs of the devastated area,” according to The New York Times Web site.

Why is America out bullying other countries when it can’t even take care of a crisis on its front porch?

According to wikipedia.org, Katrina “resulted in widespread damage and many deaths, largely due to the delay in providing federal disaster relief to states whose ability to respond had been severely degraded by the assignment of National Guard troops and equipment to Iraq.”

If American government wasn’t off giving other countries swirlies and wedgies, maybe we would have been able to provide a more adequate relief effort toward the destruction left by Katrina.

One could argue America is not a bully but a hero and saving those in need.

Yes, we provide aid to many countries that have asked us for it. But we shouldn’t go around helping those who aren’t asking for it.

We experience what happens when we assume we’re better than everyone else.

America just needs to get off its pedestal and keep its nose out of everyone else’s business.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.