A Response to Bruce Thorton
In his recent critique of the coalition intervention in Libya, Bruce Thorton raises a number of common misconceptions which he summarizes "... And our efforts to liberate oppressed Muslims will buy us their affection and support, further eroding the appeal of jihadism and making us more secure from terror."
No, we do not intervene to save others from genocide in order to buy their affections. We intervene because we could not be who we aspire to be unless we did.
This does not mean that others will behave as we do. But, as history does reveal, they in their turn aspire to be like us.
We play a different game than the zero-sum game of many of our contemporaries. From the American ideal, nations were born and are being born. If truth be told, the virus of democracy spreading in the Arab lands was first released by the Americans as a Weapon of Mass Construction in Baghdad.
Savor your victory America.
No, we do not intervene to save others from genocide in order to buy their affections. We intervene because we could not be who we aspire to be unless we did.
This does not mean that others will behave as we do. But, as history does reveal, they in their turn aspire to be like us.
We play a different game than the zero-sum game of many of our contemporaries. From the American ideal, nations were born and are being born. If truth be told, the virus of democracy spreading in the Arab lands was first released by the Americans as a Weapon of Mass Construction in Baghdad.
Savor your victory America.
posted by deignan @ 11:11 PM
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