Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Max Boot on Darfur and on Internationalism:
[1]Darfur here, [2]internationalism (reviewing Beyond the Age of
Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World) here. I'm
not an expert on these subjects, but I've generally found Max Boot's
work interesting and persuasive, so I thought I'd pass these two
along. A quote from the Darfur piece:
So who will stop the killing? That question should trouble any
tender soul who has ever mindlessly muttered, "Never again." That
incantation is repeated after every genocide -- after the
Holocaust, after the Cambodian killing fields, after Rwanda -- and
yet the next time mass slaughter breaks out, the world conveniently
averts its gaze. The major exceptions in recent years have been
Kosovo and Bosnia, which had the good fortune to be on Western
Europe's doorstep. The rest of the world is treated to high-minded
cluck-clucking and, maybe, ex post facto prosecutions.
The only way to save Darfur is to dispatch a large and capable
military expedition. But Security Council members France, China and
Russia have blocked a U.N. decision on armed intervention because
they covet trade ties with Sudan. . . . [And] the only nation with
a serious military capacity [for independent action], the United
States, is overstretched in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The European Union should step into the breach. Its economy is as
big as the United States' and its population is even bigger. But it
has chosen to spend its euros on extravagant handouts for its own
citizens rather than on the kind of armed forces that might bring a
ray of hope to the "heart of darkness." Although the European
members of NATO actually have more ground troops than the U.S. --
about 1.5 million soldiers -- only about 6% are readily deployable
abroad. . . .
And from the other one:
[Kishore Mahbubani, who recently stepped down as Singapore's
ambassador to the United Nations] closes with an obligatory plea
for a kinder, gentler superpower to promote "greater respect for
international law." But isn't that what Bill Clinton did? He never
saw a treaty he didn't want to sign or a foreign leader he didn't
want to consult. And yet that didn't prevent the growth of
murderous anti-Americanism. Mahbubani, like other critics of the
Bush administration, ignores Machiavelli's dictum that "it is much
safer to be feared than loved." George W. Bush may not have
increased the love for the United States, but if he has increased
respect for American power, that's an underappreciated achievement.
References
1.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot14apr14,0,4391246.column?coll=la-home-utilities
2. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7370058/site/newsweek/
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