Quote:
Originally posted by RawAlex@Sep 9 2004, 10:37 PM
Rolo, the US appears to be LOOKING for places to police. Specifically anywhere that there are "muslim extremists" on the loose.
The slaying of X number of people (I am reminded of the onion headline, 50,000 brown people die somewhere) is a bad thing, yes indeedy. But I am wondering if it had been, 100,000 tutsis in central africa as opposed to a "muslim extremist action", would the US be even looking at it? They shrugged their shoulders and didn't do much about previous mass slayings.
Alex
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Alex, I tend to agree with a lot of what you post, but sometimes I think I'm reading exchanges between Raw Mike and Alex AI.
I still don't know whether Mike wants to go in to defend the Christians AND kill off some A-rabs, or just to kill off some "Islamists."
What I do know is that you would be equally critical of a publicly-announced deliberate U.S. decision not to intervene (as opposed to the cautious indifference we've shown) as you would be of a decision TO intervene.
Our actions during the Rwanda crisis, like the actions of the rest of the world, were reprehensible. The fault can be split equally between the Clinton Administration, which lacked the balls to act, and the Republicans who would have scuttled any action he might have attempted.
What I don't understand is how the fuck that matters at all in the current circumstances. Since we fucked up last time, we can't act this time? If it saves a couple hundred thousand lives in the process, does it really matter if the reasons for intervening fails some kind of litmus test?
What would you propose be done - let the genocide continue? The Europeans are acting even more cautiously than the Bush Administration. A U.N. Peacekeeping Force is NEVER effective in the face of active hostilities.
I don't give a damn if it's Moslems killing Christians, Christians killing Hindus, Mormons killing Jehovah's Witnesses* - it needs to be stopped.
Okay, so maybe in this instance I think we should support whatever side happens to be losing at the moment.