| I answered this, give me a list of times the US has done this
WWII: Despite the fact that Germany was blitzkrieging Europe, we stayed out of the war (at the expense of Britain, Poland, Austria, Norway, Holland, France . . ) until we were attacked
1950s: Look up 'Operation Success'. The CIA backed a coup against a popularly elected Central American leader because that leader was threatening US corporate interests. What followed was a dictatorial regime that killed thousands of its own citizens and rolled back the advances the previous leader was trying to instill. But hey, they Nat'l Food Co got to keep its plantations, so I guess it was okay.
The Gulf War: Bush the First decided *not* to remove Saddam because it was felt that instability in the region was 'not in US interests'; as a result the massacre of the Kurds continued, and we're still right where we were in '91.
The Berlin Airlift: although this was a humanitarian operation, it was done to prevent West Berlin from falling to the Soviets, and thereby allowing the US and NATO to maintain a tripwire defense force within East Germany.
I could go on and on and on, but Illiad is right. In the words of Kissinger, 'Nations do not have friends, they have interests'. It is the *duty* of the chief executive to protect the interests of the country; to betray those interests for *any* reason, no matter how noble, is contrary to his oath of office and in my mind, treasonous (Neville Chamberlain comes to mind). It wouldn't do much good for us to have a president who said 'Iraq has WMD, but I don't believe in war, so we won't do anything about it'. Whether Iraq has those weapons may be a matter of conjecture, but the motivations of nation states are not. |
