Many of my generation are trapped in a difficult dichotomy of opinion regarding our obligation regarding human rights in other countries.
The inaction of other nations during the German purge of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mental defective and other minority groups prior to and during WWII, left compassionate people everywhere with a sense of guilt for the inaction. The result is an internal urge to intervene in other countries where human rights are abused by the ruling class.
In addition, in the late 1970's
made intervention in the affairs of foreign governments to establish human rights an official foreign policy of our government.
But, in practice we have found that "nation building," attempting to instill democratic forms of government in other countries, has often failed, particularly in those accustomed to a tribal form of authoritarian government.
A more recent concept is that "we cannot be the World Police," and that we should not intervene in the internal conflicts and Civil Wars of other countries. There are voices today saying that we should simply let the Shia and Sunni factions of Islam fight it out. A prospective female candidate for
has said that the five terrorist leaders recently released from Guantanamo are the problems of Afghanistan and Iraq, not ours.
So...........where do your sentiments lie?
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