Is the USA the rattlesnake? Because who has china bitten? The USA is in constant war.

We’ll need a more apt parable for dueling superpowers and the effect on their citizens. Perhaps “The Giants and the Ants”, where the ants beseech the giants to stop stepping on them as they fight in the fields where they have built their nest. Each of the giants argue that if they look down to avoid stepping on the ants, their rival will gain advantage and win the duel. When the ants ask the giants why they must duel in the first place, the giants will not understand their question at all.

wrong metaphor, read leviathan by hobbes. It's all ants.

Belling the Cat comes to mind.

We are the country with the proven record as nefarious and backstabbing. This is, in fact, the reason why I am complaining in the first place and don't trust our state to represent our interests (long before I was born—this is a bipartisan problem).

It's quite amazing that we were the target of 9/11 and failed to learn a damn thing that might help us avoid another.