Monday, December 8, 2008

What Can We Do To Change Them?

This morning I was watching "Face The Nation" with Bob Schieffer. During an interview with Tom Friedman discussing Pakistan, he stated "what can we do to change them?". That's a very interesting statement. When did we get put in charge of "changing" countries and cultures? Did they ask us to change them? When did we become so arrogant that we believe that everyone should be like us? Why do we always pick a "weak" country as our target for change? Why don't we enter the Congo right now and change them? Why don't we invade N. Korea and change them. How about Russia? The Congo, Bosnia, Rawanda, Zimbabwee, Myanmar, Somalia...that's where we could have implemented change. Not changing a culture, but changing a government and saving innocent people.

I had a conversation with a good friend a few weeks ago who has been travelling the world a lot lately. He reports that our arrogance has made us very unpopular. I don't think that that is new news to anyone, but shouldn't we stare into the mirror and ask ourselves the question "who put us in charge of the world?" I'm a very firm believer that we should wield our power to aid countries during major internal conflicts where millions of innocent people are being impacted. I'm not a supporter of invading countries for their resources under the veil of being a good Samaritan.

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