VictimOfScience
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In case you didn't know, he was the 23rd American President (1889-1893) and is championed many great causes like that of the Native American, the Civil War veteran, and stringent anti-trust laws. He is also the man who said,
“We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.”
Its this statement that really gets me, especially since the circumstances in which the world finds itself today are dire and largely due to sentiments in the White House and elsewhere that directly oppose this most rational of philosophies.
The bodies that were supposed to be responsible for these duties, however, have been largely ineffective in exerting their power. The League of Nations, formed after WWI, failed to prevent WWII and became the United Nations afterward in an effort to maintain peace, encourage economic growth, and promote human rights around the globe. It now seems that the United Nations is failing to prevent further multi-national aggression, failing to foster economic development, and failing to prevent human rights violations in many instances worldwide.
President Harrison had it right, but he made that statement 30 years before any of these bodies came into existence, so it was before the US declared war on Germany in WWI, bringing a swift Central defeat only a year and a half later, and before the US helped the Allies defend themselves against the Axis threat in WWII and emerge as the world's most powerful nation. So where does that leave us now? Has the idea of an international governing body capable of delivering on such lofty principles created by our forefathers so many years ago finally gone the way of the dodo? Is the United States now the de facto United Nations? If so, what can be done to rectify the power imbalance that now threatens to crush the world in its iron grip?
“We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.”
Its this statement that really gets me, especially since the circumstances in which the world finds itself today are dire and largely due to sentiments in the White House and elsewhere that directly oppose this most rational of philosophies.
The bodies that were supposed to be responsible for these duties, however, have been largely ineffective in exerting their power. The League of Nations, formed after WWI, failed to prevent WWII and became the United Nations afterward in an effort to maintain peace, encourage economic growth, and promote human rights around the globe. It now seems that the United Nations is failing to prevent further multi-national aggression, failing to foster economic development, and failing to prevent human rights violations in many instances worldwide.
President Harrison had it right, but he made that statement 30 years before any of these bodies came into existence, so it was before the US declared war on Germany in WWI, bringing a swift Central defeat only a year and a half later, and before the US helped the Allies defend themselves against the Axis threat in WWII and emerge as the world's most powerful nation. So where does that leave us now? Has the idea of an international governing body capable of delivering on such lofty principles created by our forefathers so many years ago finally gone the way of the dodo? Is the United States now the de facto United Nations? If so, what can be done to rectify the power imbalance that now threatens to crush the world in its iron grip?
