One of the things I've noticed is how quickly things change, not that I have any expectations of the West pulling its act together for UN interventions overnight. Who could have forecast, for instance, how quickly the US, with professed military power to fight major wars on two continents simultaenously, bogged down politically, militarily, economically, or how other countries are rising in influence.
The US has declared itself in the intervention business, to invade premptly and change the social, military and economic structures of any country it considers inimical to ITS national interests. The UN has been very selective and timid in exercising military interventions to the disgust of most of the civilized world. The US has discovered the limits of technology and going it alone.
I believe in intervention. Just as societies over time intervened into what happens behind factory and mine gates, and what happens in homes behind closed doors, the West has evolved to interventions across national borders, very selectively and often with tenuous results. Currently, the US can't go it alone---nor should it---as threats arise to mutual interests all over the world.
So what to do? I offered my "notion" because I think the West has reached a juncture where something has to change. Anyone not thinking that way is not thinking at all. The virtual standoff in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hamas and Hezbollah, Katrina as a terrorist propaganda gift of the US as a paper tiger, Bush and Blair repudiated, nuclear proliferation, NATO split, requires strong collective action.
So, no, I didn't offer it as a joke. The US can't be nor wants to be the world's policeman. Bush entered office promising to disentangle his country from overseas commitments. Canada and the US can't hide behind a Fortress North America. People generally try to manage their affairs better when they're bereft, where the West is now.
Terrorists and tinpots are jerking us around. What history do we draw on, Larry? Not the current UN's but those grand coalitions, those courageous meetings of great minds, where people joined together to get big jobs done. The UN has a framework. It lacks only a passion and a plan.
