Even so, why the hell should we care? We are not Iranians. We do not live near the country, nor are we affected by this decision. In short, it really doesn’t matter to Americans. Yet, here we are, up in arms, pretending and acting on Twitter, for something half the world away. What is it about this event that makes us interested in it?
Well, for starters, we happen to hate the system currently running Iran. Ever since they invaded our sovereign embassy, we have despised that country. The hardliners are anti-American, anti-Jew, and pro-oil-embargo. Oh, and they are also Muslims, which is a big no-no. Basically, they fight against everything we believe in. As we learned during the Cold War, any country that disagrees with us needs to change.
That said however, one needs to wonder: do we have the right to do anything about this? The world is in anarchy, and all inter-state politics take place in this anarchy. While the UN might try to police the anarchy, any attempt to do so is futile and wrong. So, why is the US over there trying to police it?
What gives this country, which I do believe is the greatest on Earth, the right to interfere with others? Iran is a sovereign nation; they run according to their own government. North Korea has the right to have an insane dictator, Cuba has the right to Castro, and Iran has the right to fraud. We have no right, as a country, or as an international player, to try to police what goes on in Tehran.
Hey, Americans, look out your door. You see the problems in your own backyard? Police those, and leave other countries to do as they wish.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Baronius
Thing hasn't replied yet. I guess he's too busy reflecting on the powerful words of President Obama on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
2 - Christopher Rose
Sorry folks, "TheRealThing" is the prodigal JOM who is permanently banned from the site.
3 - Robert M. Barga
Somebody is removing my comments, interesting...
Valid point Baronius. Though, Obama's words go directly against my entire point here. See, Obama has no right, as an international player, to try and affect other countries
4 - Robert M. Barga
That's cool Mr. Rose
i figured something like that... enjoy chasing him around
5 - Baronius
Chris, you might as well zap my comment too. It doesn't make any sense without context.
6 - Cindy
Robert,
You really don't have much of an idea why people would show support for other people in the world, do you?
Different people have different outlooks, certainly and therefore different reasons. But some people are not interested in your back yard my backyard politics. Nor are they all necessarily suggesting the US should police anybody.
What does supporting one's fellow humans have to do with states and backyards and policing and the US?
7 - El Bicho
This is poorly reasoned and makes no sense
8 - Andy Marsh
If everyone went by that "look in your own backyard" thing, it'd be a pretty boring world. Why not say, cast the first stone, or some other bullshit line? Do as I say, not as I do?
How 'bout this one...nobody's perfect?
But you're absolutely right, why should America give a damn about a ruler that has publicly called for the destruction of another country in his own region? What happens in the middle east will NEVER affect America. We should all just shove our heads in the sand and go back to sleep...all the bad men died in those planes that day...don't worry....
Sorry, but I don't think that poli-sci thing is working for you pal!
9 - roger nowosielski
I must agree with the last three respondents, Robert [Edited].
What would you do if your next-door neighbor was beating on his wife or kept on kicking his puppy dog? Just stand there, saying to yourself it's none of my business?
We no longer live in a world where other people's actions are inconsequential. For better or worse, we're all in this together. It's called global politics.
10 - Franco
As it states of the author........
Robert M. Barga is a student at The Ohio State University and is majoring in Political Science, with an American Policy focus.
This student's opinion piece has all the ear marks of the mind numbing effects of a radical professor hell bent on molding young minds to fit the political relativism of the professor. And political relativism, like all relativism, is like AIDS.
AIDS is a syndrome in which the body becomes helpless in the face of infectious diseases. It loses its ability to distinguish good (food) from evil (viruses). AIDS is a kind of bodily relativism, a self-destructive openness to good and evil alike. Similarly, an AIDS-infected American mind loses its ability to tell the difference between healthful and harmful opinions.
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
As El Bicho points out, and I concur - "This is poorly reasoned and makes no sense"
Maybe if/when Robert finds his own soul, listens to it, and then has the guts to stand up for it, instead of trying to mimic professors who have lost theirs, not only will his writings have a chance of improving, but more importantly, maybe they will start making sense.
Until then I have to agree with Andy Marsh in post #9 when he says
""Sorry, but I don't think that poli-sci thing is working for you pal!"
11 - irene wagner
(A parenthetical comment to Baronius, and then I will refrain from littering the twitterways with my thoughts on Iran.
They are all in my prayers.)
"And Sally and I
Did not know what to do.
So we had to shake hands with Thing One and Thing Two.
We shook their two hands.
But our fish said, "No! No!"
Those Things should not be
in this house! Make them go!"
The Cat in the Hat Dr. Seuss
12 - Lumpy
Do you think France didn't have the right to help us fight and win independence from the British? Do you think we should have just left slavery alone in the 1860s?
The fact is that natiions and people who value liberty have not only a right but an obligation to opppose terror and tyranny wherever they are and by whatever means necessary.
13 - Franco
Bravo! Lumpy
14 - M a rk
Here, here! Thus, I am obligated to advocate opposing Capitalists' tyrannical abuse of individuals' liberty wherever it is encountered and by whatever means necessary -- almost.
15 - roger nowosielski
Comes with the territory, Mark, especially if individual liberty is in jeopardy not only abroad but at home.
16 - Dr Dreadful
Lumpy (@ #12), France in the 1770s had not yet undergone her own revolution. The French aided the fledgling United States not because they valued liberty but because they knew it would piss off the British.
17 - Dave Nalle
Nice revisionism, Dr. D. That may have been true to some extent, but much of the money which went to the US was raised by private individuals like Caron de Beaumarchais and Lafayette, and many of the people who went to fight for the US were volunteers from France, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland who went because they were inspired by the ideals of individual liberty popular in Europe at the time. Even the feckless Louis XVI was a big fan of the idea of liberty, though he couldn't quite figure out how to follow through in his own country. More conservative French politicians like Vergennes did everything they could to put obstacles in the way of French support for America and wanted to make America a French client state, but the radicals overwhelmed them with their enthusiasm.
Dave
18 - Bliffle
...and while he was doing all that, Beaumarchais wrote some great librettos for Mozart.
What a guy!
19 - roger nowosielski
Not just librettos but full-scale plays. Indeed, what a guy.
20 - Robert M. Barga
@6
I have no issue with a show of support, my issue is with the concept of using our power to police the international stage
21 - Robert M. Barga
@7 - bicho
care to expand upon that?
22 - Robert M. Barga
@8 - Andy
I am sorry that i understand the concept of interstate politics and how they function
23 - Robert M. Barga
@10 - franco
Um, while my professors never are near me, most happen to be to the right of the spectrum. THose on the left, however, have yet to influence me as well. I am sorry that i understand the concept of political science in both the American (my focus) and the international realms, but the case is, it is still an anarchy (they want the UN)
24 - Robert M. Barga
@12
where is that obligation or right? We have no right to interfere with another government, none at all. We have no duty to either
if that were the case, how can we be friends with Britain, who spies on all of her people? What about Germany, which pubishes free speech? how do you defend this double standard?
25 - Cindy
20 - Robert,
I am in agreement with that. I would like nothing better than for the US to stay home and out of the affairs of other countries.
As a 'green twitterer', I'm not seeing calls for US intervention.
As far as why anyone would care, I'm interested in finding out. I'm not so sure about your assessment. This is a unique experience for some. Being directly involved in the protest of people from another country. And Iran, to boot. It's not the first time it's happened, just the first time for mass participation.
It's a good start. I'd like to see more of it. It's an action of solidarity.