Liberal guilt vs. White Man’s Burden

Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Burma, the Sudan, Tibet, Iran are all countries with which we’re all familiar of the terrible depravations portions of the respective populations suffer nearly every day. Their particular oppressors use liberal guilt to continue their brand of governance.

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe blames the United Kingdom for his political opposition, Venezuela’s Chavez warns that “the Empire” of the US wants Chavez dead for Venezuela’s oil, Iran’s Ahmadinejad almost daily warns of a US invasion. The Myanmar government hides behind the Chinese while maintaining it’s brutal repression under the guise of protecting the country from foreign instigators.

The United Nations act concerned about these pockets of oppression, but they do nothing to further their intentions than wring their hands and make lofty speeches. Mostly because the members are all engaged in various degrees of oppression themselves and they worry that actually enforcing the tenets of human rights might someday come to their own countries.

Despite the rhetoric of the American Left, there is case to be made for the use of force to relieve the sufferings of people around the world. The “peace-at-any-cost” crowd can’t justify not removing radical entities from the world stage while they complain about the imagined deprivations they suffer under the Bush Administration. We have a responsibility to make the world safer for all people, as the premier defender of human rights – the city on a hill.

The UK has a moral responsibility to end the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe since they actually facilitated his installation three decades ago. Since the United Nations has hardly been able to summon the fortitude to even mention Mugabe, they’ve outlived their usefulness. When corrupt dictators have an equal voice in the UN as civilized nations, thecollective voice is muted.

The world knows what they won’t admit – the US isn’t prone to non-judicial use of military power and the UK isn’t looking to rebuild it’s empire. If ever there was a time or a place to use the threat of military force to remove repressive governments, it’s in those nations I listed above. If the United Nations can’t get their act together, and they’ve proven time-and-again that they can’t, the civilized nations have a responsibility to heal these aberrations using any means possible.

Why should one more person suffer because the Left feels guilty about the judicial use of force? What’s the real humanitarian choice here?

Category: Antiwar crowd, Foreign Policy, Politics, United Nations