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As the United States and the rest of the world sit around and watch East Timor burn, innocent civilians, boys and girls are being mercilessly slaughtered without cause. These innocents, whose only crime was to vote against an oppressive and corrupt military government who unjustly took their island by force, are no different from the innocent Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo. They are caught up in the swirling maelstorm that is tyranny.
And yet we treat them differently. We consider the interests of Kosovo to be vital to our Interests, but don't regard East Timor as such. Is human life so much more valuable when it is of Eurapean descent? This policy of intervening where our national interests seem to be concerned, from Cuba and Panama all the way through Desert Storm, is the worst sort of policy derived from an inherently Eurocentrist and Americentrist doctrine. The people are still people, but we don't seem to care.
If one has the power to make a change, or a difference, than it is a conscious decision not to act, just as it is to act. By not going to East Timor we are saying that we don't care about them and that we are willing to condemn them to cruel murder. Thousands have died as a result of bringing democracy to East Timor. As the world's foremost and oldest democracy, it is our duty to protect it throughout the globe.
The thinking that pervades the Republican party and was manifest during Kosovo will doubtlessly play a part here. Pointing to examples such as Vietnam and Somalia the isolationists say that we shouldn't be the world's policeman. However, the ratio of American servicemen killed in military operations in the 90's compared to the deaths in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and East Timor is 1000 to 1. If military personell are unwilling to risk their lives to save innocents, the have no business being in the Armed Forces.
Our mandate to protect the citizens of the world can be derived from our own Declaration of Independence. The phrase "All-men are created equal" does not contain disclaimers saying Americans or Whites or any other distinction. It includes all. From this mandate we have the obligation as the richest, strongest and most developed nation to provide and protect those who have had the "misfortune" of not being born in the United States. For these reasons I fully believe we should act immiedietely to protect the innocent East Timorese citizens and put a stop to the militia's terorizing campaign.