Lest I seem cold and uncaring, my heart breaks and my blood boils even though I cannot fathom 45,000 people dying per month in a war, as is happening in Democratic Republic of Congo. However, when it seemed as though The Regime was going to send troops to almost every sovereign nation in The Middle East to give them the gift of democracy in return for a few million barrels of crude, didn't those awakened Americans wonder how it was going to produce enough American soldiers to fight all of those wars? Didn't we oppose the war in Iraq because it was not a war of necessity but a war of choice?
If we send troops into Sudan, wouldn't that be our choice? If we send troops into Sri Lanka, would that not be our choice?
We can all agree that The Regime lied about Iraq, but that those who sincerely want to end real bloodshed and suffering genuinely care about those who are dying and suffering. Nonetheless, we don't have the resources to stop all of it, if any of it. Our citizens, those who we should care most about, would become victims of the same bloodshed and suffering. We would never have an agreement among our population whether the side for which our kids were fighting and dying was the righteous side or the villainous side. Most importantly the past has shown us that, once we leave, remnants of the "defeated" population could very well reemerge and the fragile peace that may result from the violent war would cease.
Are we trying to force the alcoholic to stop drinking? Isn't the first step in a 12 step program admitting to having a problem in the first place? No matter how many troops we send to any "troubled spot" in the world, we will never change the minds of the tyrants who are causing the pain and destruction. They have to come to the realization that what they're doing is wrong and, considering the magnitude of what the tyrants are usually doing, the probability of their coming to that realization is slim to none.
Enter Plan B. When the tyrannical leaders fail to realize the evil of their ways, the people have to become intolerant enough of those ways to rise up against the tyrants and overthrow them. This, too, is no guarantee, as the blackness that people see can become so intolerable that dark gray begins to look good and dark gray is just a shade from black.
Another quote comes to mind. John Quincy Adams is credited with saying, "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
1 | 2
