Lead, that is exactly why nothing is being done about Darfur; complacent westerners don't seem to know that the answer to the question "Am I my brother's keeper?" is supposed to be "Yes."
Many of the things said in your reply were also said in the 1940s: the mess in Europe, according to some, was none of our business; American blood shouldn't be shed in a European war that does not concern us.
To a great extent, the responsibility for the events that took place in Europe, the murder, rapine, and genocide, must be laid at our own doorstep. Complacency and an isolationist sentiment kept us from becoming involved in those events until it was almost too late.
The history of warfare shows that, when the bullets begin to fly, the best laid plans often go astray. If you actually believed that the Iraq war would be over in a matter of weeks, and that no long-term problems would crop up during the occupation, then you were deluding yourself. Ben Laden is right, the typical modern American, who believes in quick results, hasn't the internal fortitude for sustained struggle.
Personally, I believe that much of the criticism of the war stems from partisan political rancor that has been festering and growing since the election of 2000, and is becoming so bitter and acrimonious that it may leave the government permanently divided.
This criticism, while not totally unjustified, at least in terms of the government's lack of foresight about postwar problems, is often blind and unfair. Despite recent revelations that the corner has been turned in the fight against Al Qaeda insurgents in Iraq, the partisan critics continue to demand that we pull out and cut the Iraqis adrift.
By the by, don't you think it's a bit arrogant to declare that the Iraqis would never be able to make a democracy work? Such an attitude implies that they are, as a people, somehow unequal to the task of establishing a democratic government. Sure, they're having more than their fair share of problems, but who are you to assume that they don't have what it takes, and are, therefore, undeserving of our time, wealth, blood, and respect?
If Americans are going to be this divided every single time that our forces are committed to a fight in a distant land then we should disband our military and withdraw entirely from any involvement in international events.
