Hillary Clinton says America Needs International Support to Take Action In Libya

I was skimming the morning headlines and ran across one in which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the ongoing Libyan crisis on The Early Show and stated that in any strategy, “we believe it’s important that this not be an American, or a NATO, or a European effort. It needs to be an international one.”

I have some friends who were happy with that comment because they seem to be of the mind that America should not act unless and until we have full support from the UN and NATO. They say that American involvement in Libya’s Civil War would be a mistake unless we were there because everyone wanted us to act.

My answer is simple. Baloney! In my opinion the United States of America has no business involving itself in another Middle East conflict –period. I just don’t know what it is going to take to make my fellow countrymen understand –no matter what they say right now, they do not want our interference in their affairs. In general they like our movies, our tourists and especially our foreign aid. Many of them even would like to immigrate here and become Americans. But (and this is a big but), when it comes to running their lives, in their own homelands, they just do not much like any foreigners, including people as likable as us Yankees. And I find that very understandable considering that I would be pretty angry if they came here and started telling us how to run our elections. If you question that last statement, think about the reaction in the press every time someone even remotely mentions how America should enact Shria law.

Every time we get involved in a Middle East conflict, it turns against us –and, by the way, that is true of every European and Asian power that has gone there throughout history including the Greeks, the Mongols, the Russians, the French, the British and even the people from McDonalds. I guarantee you that if we were to make the mistake of getting involved in overthrowing Gadhaffi, ten minutes after he is gone all those protesters would be back out on the streets carrying signs painted with “Yankee Go Home” and the United Nations, instead of paying us back for our expenditures, would pass a resolution condemning us for interfering and blaming us for civilian casualties.

For just once it would be nice to hear our political leaders (I know, that phrase is an oxymoron these days) give some speech talking about how we are standing by to send humanitarian supplies, to help the No-Fly Zone with AWACS and surveillance aircraft and support –but we have no intention of committing military forces to any combat role whatsoever. The Untied States of America is not the world policeman and we have no moral mandate to force our form of democracy on anyone at gunpoint or through bribes or anything else. If people want help, it is fine to be a kind of “Big Brother” and be ready to help -without fighting their battles for them or telling them how to resolve all their problems.

And while we are on the subject, let’s let Gary vent just a little more about one sort of related subject. I think it is very noble for us to be building homes for the homeless in places like Darfor and Uganda –but as long as we have homeless people here on the streets of New York and Los Angeles, sending billions of dollars overseas is morally questionable. It may be old fashioned but I think “family first” is a very good way to look at these problems….

Live Long and Prosper.....