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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The Moral Equation with US Intervention

Did Libya Prove War Hawks Right or Wrong? (Conor Friedersdorf) from The Atlantic
"The unintended consequences of military intervention are nearly impossible to predict."
The trick here is to also realize that the consequences of military NON-INTERVENTION are also almost impossible to predict.  The implicit assumption here is that, if the US intervenes, we own the consequences of our intervention.  However, as Bill Clinton can attest concerning the US role in the Rwandan genocide, inaction also has its consequences and that doing nothing in no way gets the US off the hook.  If we as a country are going to so build up our military that ours is far and away the most powerful military in the world, we own both sides.  Most countries in the world don't bother having or even pretending to have the capacity to intervene the way the US does and the way it can.  Thus, in my view, we are uniquely on the hook in global hot spots -- and yet we like to pretend that we're not.

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