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Originally Posted by powerclown
Of course I don't know you, as we've never met or spoken before. I also haven't been on here as lately as I used to be, so I beg your pardon.
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My pardon is granted. No harm done.
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As far as comments in relation to your questions, this is what I think: Yes I think it's important to be aware of world events, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't. People have enough to deal with in their own, everyday lives is my point. I think most people have a certain amount of basic human decency and care about the plight of their fellow (wo)man. I agree with you that the amount of cruelty in the world can be absolutely overwhelming to comprehend at times. I read the paper, I read books, I read magazines, I watch tv...I do empathize. But what can I do, personally? I am not a millionaire, I can't hand out $40 million dollars to children starving in Africa like Oprah. I can't give millions to AIDS research like Bill and Melinda Gates. I would if I could.
The best I can do is concentrate on my immediate family and friends. They are the ones who need my attention and affection, not strangers who are 6,000 miles away in another country.
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I agree with you. I don't hold it against anyone who would prefer not to know. No doubt it is an easier existence.
Whatever gets you through the night, it's alright, it's alright.... 
But it's like Pandora's Box, you know? Once you've opened it, there's no going back.
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To get political for a minute, I also think that guilt plays a large part in populations of industrialized nations towards undeveloped Third World nations. People feel guilty because for no reason other than being born in a certain place, they have so much more than others. But what is that? Its Fate. Should one feel guilty because of Fate, because of circumstances completely out of one's control?
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I think I know what you're getting at, but for myself, the guilt I feel is not the guilt of living in "the land of plenty" while others are born in places where the very ground they walk on is of little to no benefit to their survival. It is the guilt of not doing enough to help. Still while fully aware that "help" is a trite word in relation to the magnitude of the world's problems.
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I think it would be a wonderful thing that you want to travel to other lands and help other people less fortunate. Nothing wrong with that. Of course theres also nothing wrong with people who decide to stay at home to be near friends and family, helping out in their own communities and neighborhoods.
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I fully agree. I am not at all an "elitist" about this (for lack of a better word at 2am). I don't use these feelings to make myself feel I'm a better person than other people.
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I apologize if I came of as glib or sarcastic...
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Really, it's not a problem. I appreciate your input.
And of course, I am
never glib or sarcastic.
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Originally Posted by host
mixedmedia, our military is not a force of miracle workers. Tragic as the killing in Rwanda was, at the time, there was no grassroots domestic pressure upon the POTUS to involve US troops, and even if Clinton had overridden objections, the description above makes an argument for the idea that it would not have been a responsible use of US troops, given the level of unrest and the lack of support from other UN members. The lack of support from other UN members was a good argument for delaying the March, 2003, US invasion of Iraq, too.
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I'm aware of the politics that went into our decision not to intervene and the politics only make me more dismayed. Here we were, we had lost less than 20 men in a battle that killed and injured thousands and that was reason enough to standby and allow the slaughter of nearly a million. And America did not support intervention? America didn't know enough about what was going on to make an informed decision about whether to intervene or not. All we knew was that there was another civil conflict going on in war-torn Africa, not the most systematic act of genocide of the latter part of the twentieth century. And a deliberate point was made to keep us uninformed. I understand all the reasons why we didn't act. I just don't like them and I
hate the implications of them.
The actions of France and the UN.
Those, those I do not understand.