The European Union has had ongoing talks about Greece’s debt crisis. The United Nations has had numerous conferences and summits on the global economic cancer that has dragged growth down in 2011. One can only wonder why the United States has decided to deal with its debt crisis alone.

The U.S. is dependent right now on a group of lawmakers that are willing to tank the economy to gain political capital in the upcoming 2012 elections. It has refused to ask other nations for advice or help. Instead, the country has left the mess to be sorted out by a deeply divided government. This is a problem.

The debt fiasco highlights this isolation. If the GOP can gain the upper hand on the debt deal, they can milk their “victory” for all its worth in 2012. In fact, according to Yahoo! News, “Sen. Jim DeMint sent an email to supporters through the Senate Conservatives Fund earlier [in July] attacking a fallback plan proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. At the bottom of the message, DeMint asked for support to help his group elect more conservatives to the Senate.”

Democrats are not any better. Despite a majority in the Senate, they have refused to exhibit strong leadership and take control of the situation. They have devolved to disagreeing amongst themselves. This endless bickering is strongly reminiscent of toddlers fighting over who can get the bigger slice of cake, all while the cake is burning in the oven. The debt crisis debate, politically, is solely focused on the United States. The country is drowning while attempting to out-talk and out-maneuver each other. In the process, it only swallows more water and sinks that much deeper.

Nowhere in this political juggernaut is the government trying to understand its decisions within a global perspective. It bears repeating. The U.S. government is trying to prevent a global catastrophe completely by itself. There is no country in the world that would even consider tackling this issue without consulting its neighbors. For heaven’s sake – we’re in debt! China has bought nearly $1 trillion  of U.S. debt, according to The New York Times.  This only takes the icing off of the $14 trillion of our total debt, which involves several other nations.

It automatically means that this problem is not simply about America. It is about every country the U.S. has borrowed from and every country that borrows from it. The problem is also about every country that is in any way economically tied to us. This extends to every country. Period.

So, the U.S. has a government that cannot agree within its own parties on a solution. Forget bipartisanship. The U.S. thinks that, with its sadly broken pieces, it can reach an agreement that will allow it to improve its credit rating and prevent a default on its debt. A default would mean that U.S. Treasury bonds, which other countries have agreed to take as collateral for the debt, will have no value. Other countries will then financially collapse, since the “money” the U.S. has been paying them with will be useless. An agreement may or may not save the day from the scary economic monster, but the country is maimed in two legs and an arm. It seems we have hit a point where we have to ask for some help, or risk being unable to walk.

The European Union understood the basic idea of cooperation decades ago when it first began to form. An economic crisis in any one country within the Union is the business and priority of all other members. This is in direct recognition of the fact that economies are interdependent. When an individual buys a car from a maker outside of one’s country, money reaches the hands of people on both sides of the border. Greece’s economic crisis, which began in the early 2000’s and exploded in 2009, has been the subject of talks by the EU since day one. They have agreed on multi-billion-dollar packages intended to stimulate Greece’s economy, as well as austerity measures, thus slashing welfare benefits and public sector jobs, according to The New York Times.  While Greece is still struggling to regain a foothold in the slippery economy of the world, it can rely on its neighbors for support.

The U.S. is not incapable of cooperation. There is hope that before November, the country could have time to host a summit on the economic impacts of raising the debt ceiling. Major players in the current debt crisis would participate and a solution can be reached internationally.

As a part of an interconnected world, the U.S. has to stop thinking that problems end at the borders and see the strings that attach it to the citizens in Greece. Help and rescue from others is exactly what America needs right now, only if it can reach out over the waters and someone sees its open, willing hand.

Priya Sirohi is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.