Libya

Oh, Libya. Where to begin. The hypocrisy staggers me, first of all. Make no mistake, we are at war. Our military has attacked the military of a soverign nation. We attacked; we struck first. I wanted to first say that as a side note. As for the hypocrisy: When Bush got a UN resolution authorizing military force, liberals called military action illegal because Congress did not declare war. Obama has now done the same thing -- in less than a week's time, at that -- and suddenly it's okay. Where are the liberals and their outrage now? Nobody's done or said very much about it. Liberals said Saddam being a murderer was not a valid reason to go to war because Iraq posed no imminent threat to us. But now when Obama does the same thing, it's okay. Hypocrites.

As much of a supporter as I am of the "we want to help" idealism laced throughout our international policy, the simple fact is we shouldn't be anywhere near Libya right now, much less militarily. It may be in the best interest of a decent person's moral code, but it contradicts national interest. Libya is no threat to America. We've been dropping bombs and shooting down Libyan military for days now. We are, in every definition, an imposing military force invading the territory of a soverign nation. Good reasons or no good reasons aside: that is, in very essence, what is happening. If we continue this trend of sending military assets to every country at war with itself, it will lead to indefinite U.S. military occupation of most of the countries in the world, Africa and the Middle East specifically. I hear there's civil war in Somalia; let's send the army and fix their problems too, while we're at it (complete sarcasm: let's NOT go to Somalia). America is the most indebted nation on Earth, with a national deficit of over 14 trillion 236 billion dollars. Considering the average population of America being just over 310 million people (these are generalized numbers that can be verified/more specified at http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/), that means that each citizen's share of the debt is roughly $45,889.53. We cannot even remotely begin to afford yet another war on our hands. Our military is already spread thinly across the world. We are merely borrowing even more money that we cannot pay back to send soldiers out somewhere halfway across the world to settle one of COUNTLESS countries' domestic problems. I'm not insensitively giving the "screw you" to oppressed people worldwide; I AM saying that we need to get our own country in order and back on its feet before we go imposing ourselves on so many others. The King James Bible says: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" The NIV Bible translates to: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" I personally translate this to: don't try to fix the world if you can't fix yourself (in regards to America).

Again, I completely sympathize with the "we want to fix the world and save all the people" idealism, because I hate to see suffering as much as the next man. But that idealism is exactly that: idealism. The reality is that we simply cannot go wherever we please in the world without consideration of cost, motive, or general right to interfere, and make everything better. Yes, bad things happen to innocent people. But America can't control the entire world. We can't even control our own government.

J R Williams