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03/29/2003 Archived Entry: "Should the U.S. government depose every tyrant?"

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LISTS 111 COUNTRIES WHOSE POLICE OR "SECURITY FORCES" COMMIT TORTURE OR OTHERWISE ABUSE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS, 35 in which people are "disappeared" by their governments, 54 that conduct arbitrary arrests and detentions without trial ... and on and on. Human Rights watch lists 66 abusive countries in its latest report.

Even if you disagree with the specifics from these "left wing" groups, the basics remain: the world is filled with vicious dictators.

If you believe that it's the U.S. government's responsibility to invade a country solely to liberate that country's downtrodden people, then you must accept perpetual global war.

What are you willing to sacrifice In the cause of deposing every dictator who tortures, kills, enslaves, or imprisons his people without cause? What are countries like Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Angola, Libya, or Haiti (just to name a few) worth to you, personally? Would you sacrifice your son's life solely to liberate the people of those nations? Your daughter's? Yours? How much of your life are you willing to surrender in taxes to settle Columbia's problems or Myanmar's by force of American arms? If the U.S. deposes one dictator and the citizens of that country allow another to rise in his place, how many years, lives, and billions of dollars should we spend to re-invade, re-depose, and re-build? Are you willing to risk having your country, your state, or your hometown nuked, bio-attacked, or chem-attacked by some petty dictator who's angry at U.S. attempts to overthrow him -- or by residents of some country that resents U.S. occupation? Are you willing to live 100 percent of the rest of your life -- and have your children and grandchildren live 100 percent of the rest of their lives -- in a state of heightened alerts and curtailed civil liberties (the biproducts of wartime)?

If not, why not? These are all the logical consequences of your belief.

I want the dictators gone, too. Every last one of them. But this is not the way.

Posted by Claire @ 10:10 PM CST
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