[pbourke]

> Did we invade China to prevent the mass killings that occurred under Mao? Did we invade Cambodia to prevent the Khmer Rouge? Did we really care when Saddam gassed Iraqi Kurds? Why did we support Saddam invading Iran but not Kuwait? Where was our moral outrage at the former? Where was our moral outrage when Latin American dictators brutalized peasants whilst we supported them militarily?

You're citing these as precedents, but really they're failures. How would things be different if the world had taken a stand against them from the beginning?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written in the wake of WW2 - it would have been grand if the world tried to live by it.

[sykick]

Let me try to say my position in a different way. Clearly genocide is wrong and it would be great if it were stopped every time it happens. Humans are easily manipulated and in this era of Facebook we can see the result of this fact. Something as obviously stupid as being anti-vaccination has gained traction. If we can convince large numbers of people that something so clearly beneficial as vaccinations are in fact dangerous then how much easier is it to convince large numbers of people that in Country A something bad is happening and we need to invade?

If invading another country can be reduced, in its essence, to “we are good, they are bad” then this effectively gives carte blanche to those in power with bad intent. They just need to easily manipulate the masses into thinking that Country A is bad.

The U.S. has been fantastically inconsistent when it comes to intervening for humanitarian reasons. It has effectively become the case that if those in power don’t like the leadership in a given country they just need to drum up moral outrage in order to unleash our military forces. This is a bad state of affairs because it is so easy to paint a given country in a bad light. Since thoughtful consideration is not a requisite for military action we tend to engage in military conflicts for dubious reasons and for short terms goals without considering long term implications. This is bad as I see things.