Politics: Creating An Unsafe World

President Wilson entered World War I to make thepressure from the world community and condemnation
world "Safe for democracy." The rise of the Fascistsfrom its neighbors.
and World War II shattered his dream and the hopesInstead, the greatest superpower in the world shunned
of civilization that cataclysmic upheavals could becontinued diplomacy and invaded. The same dream of
forever avoided. The long Cold War created a perilouscreating peace and democracy was verbalized at
world where major powers jockeyed for control withevery opportunity. The lessons of unrestrained
the threat of weapons that could destroy every livingaggression and ignoring ethnic/religious diversity, first
thing on earth. The fear of communism exerting alearned centuries ago in ill-fated crusades, were
domino effect on small poverty-stricken countries ledignored. When you know you're right, it's hard to
to the quagmire of Vietnam and the embarrassmentconcede that everyone else isn't wrong.
of the Contra affair.What have we created -- a more unstable, troubled,
With the demise of the Soviet Union, the worldand violence-prone world; an earth that shudders at
breathed easier, believing that, at last, human effortsthe armed convulsions racing across its brittle, fragile
could concentrate on growth, space exploration, andsurface. As new fires flare across the entire Middle
scientific advance, rather than pressuring its greatestEast, we hear rumors that an attack on Iran is in the
minds into developing new means of destruction.planning stages. From the world's model of a
Throughout history, there have always been regionaldemocracy forged out of the wilderness and
conflicts, ethnic discord, and religious clashes. Therenowned for its desire for peace, prosperity, and
super powers of each era have eventually stepped inhumanity, we have become the hated face of the
and calmed the storms through diplomacy, culturalenemy, an imperialistic throwback to the 19th Century.
pressure, or an armed presence.We have become the all-powerful but hated Rome of
Iraq was undoubtedly a crude, cruel, despotic regimethe ancient world.
under Saddam, killing its own citizens, brutalizing andDespite its grandeur, Rome fell. Not to another
maltreating its minorities, and rattling defiant sabers at asuperpower, but to the ceaseless raids of uncivilized
world that failed to grant it the dignity and respect it feltsavages who used their own brand of violence to
it deserved. Its value to the world defined primarily bydefeat a culture that knew only violence to maintain
the black gold pooled beneath its deserts, it was oneitself and made no effort towards exploring peaceful
more unsettled region like Rwanda, Liberia, or Somalia.options.
It demanded the same kind of response: unwaveringAre we doomed to repeat the past?
political efforts to assert human rights, economic