I wonder if we as a nation suffer from some sort of guilt trip dating back to World War II? Do we somehow feel responsible for not doing more in the 1930's to stop Hitler before he initiated the Holocaust? Is that why we feel this urge to save all the oppressed of the world? Speaking for myself as a Christian I would say, no, I don't want to turn a blind eye to the hungry or sick, but how much can we be expected to do, especially when so many right here at home are needing help, too?
I don't see many other advanced western nations (Australia, Sweden, Canada..?) chomping at the bit wanting to get involved there and we don't seem to be too critical of them. Why is it all on us? Would we be terrible people if we just said, "Sorry, but this is your fight."
Be honest....do you really care what happens in Egypt, or Syria, or Yemen, etc? As long as they don't export terrorists to come here and do us harm, I really don't. And if they do, don't we have ways (clandestine) to deal with that short of the way we've handled things in Afghanistan? I just think we need to get our own house in order before we start telling others how to run theirs.
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I really want to disagree...but I can't. I care what happens in these places, and to the extent we can move events toward making things better for oppressed people then I am all for it, but it is way more complicated than that.
ReplyDeleteI offer these people my prayers, but not my guilt!
Every time we have armed the rebels it comes back and bites us, and many others, in the butt. Why do we get involved in other people's fights, why do we start so many fights? because war is our national character. this country has been at war in one place or another for all but a few years of it's existence.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that we are being exposed to the world for the hypocrites we are. Our foreign policy over the past fifty years has been terrible. We say we support freedom-loving democracies around the world but that isn't really true. We love to support and finance dictators provided they do what we want. Mubarak's military is the one we bought for him. The list of dictator's we've supported over the years is a long one. No wonder our presidents need to go overseas to apologize. We need a better foreign policy.
ReplyDeleteLots of politicians and even lesser mortals have not quite wrapped their minds around what being BROKE means.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I believe AL-QAEDA is also lining up to help the rebels. Bit awkward, that.