![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jebbypalDoes anyone else remember the big Republican war cry during the 1990's: "The US can't be the policeman of the world!"
The outcry surrounding it drove us out of Somalia. It bound the West's hands during the atrocities in Rwanda. It handicapped the response in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia as UN peacekeepers weren't allowed to defend designated "safe" towns.
Odd how I miss the days when we were isolationist and inward looking.
US Armed Ethiopians behind invasion of Somalia. Just another front on the global war on terror. This is a flashback to the cold war when any means against "marxist communist" was allowed, no matter the death toll. The government isn't democratic by our standards? Oh, and it's not Christian? Worse, it's Islamic? Must be a haven for Al Quaeda.
And of course, in a vieled way, many are supporting this sort of effort. In principle, I agree with some of Kristoff's points. But at the same time, I find it hard to know where we'll draw the line between situations in the now Somalia and the events of the past in Rwanda. I don't mean to say that genocide should be allowed without intervention. I'd just like to know that the global war on terror wouldn't be the justification for funding of new warlords and such.
The events all over the world right now look eerily similar to the days when we were "friends" with Saddam and Osama when Russia was the common enemy. At least to my eyes.
The outcry surrounding it drove us out of Somalia. It bound the West's hands during the atrocities in Rwanda. It handicapped the response in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia as UN peacekeepers weren't allowed to defend designated "safe" towns.
Odd how I miss the days when we were isolationist and inward looking.
US Armed Ethiopians behind invasion of Somalia. Just another front on the global war on terror. This is a flashback to the cold war when any means against "marxist communist" was allowed, no matter the death toll. The government isn't democratic by our standards? Oh, and it's not Christian? Worse, it's Islamic? Must be a haven for Al Quaeda.
And of course, in a vieled way, many are supporting this sort of effort. In principle, I agree with some of Kristoff's points. But at the same time, I find it hard to know where we'll draw the line between situations in the now Somalia and the events of the past in Rwanda. I don't mean to say that genocide should be allowed without intervention. I'd just like to know that the global war on terror wouldn't be the justification for funding of new warlords and such.
The events all over the world right now look eerily similar to the days when we were "friends" with Saddam and Osama when Russia was the common enemy. At least to my eyes.