We've had two and a half thousand years and spilt endless amounts of blood in our own countries to get democracy to where it is now, programmed into the western brain and culture as an inaliable right. Yet we expect people to whom it is an alien concept both politically and culturally to embrace it literally overnight. Are we all insane?
What's happening in Syria is appaling from both sides, however they need to sort out their own problems, or at the most let the Arab nations of that area sort it out. We cannot understand the mindset of these people so how can we sit and pontificate on what is good or not good for them? And do we have the right?
For the hand wringers and 'something must be done' brigade may I remind you that less than 20 years ago some 800,000 (some put the estimate as high as a million) Rwandan men, women and children were literally hacked to death. 500,000 of those were murdered in just 100 days. That's 5,000 per day or 208 an hour, every hour of every day for 100 days. It was the most successful genocide of the 20C. We just sat and watched it happen. Or were those human's lives somehow less worthy?
Edit: Changed Sudan to Syria, slip of the brain there.
Last edited by thing; 30th Aug 2013 at 21:41.