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