U.S. should not intervene militarily in Middle East

“It is imperative that the nations and peoples of the world speak with one voice,” said President Obama in an interview about the uprising in Libya.

Obama’s strong support for the Libyan protesters are worrying many Americans into thinking that our troops will be sent to help.

With the increasing number of revolutions occurring throughout the Middle East, the difficult decision that the U.S. has to make remains the same—to intervene or not to intervene?

Before we let our humanitarian emotions form our opinions for us, we should take into consideration where that has led us before. In Afghanistan, for example, the U.S. sent troops over to help civilians and establish a democratic government. Ten years, thousands of U.S. casualties, and billions of dollars later, we now find ourselves mediating a civil war in Afghanistan as well as involved in a conflict in Iraq. Going into these nations with good intentions, we are now stuck in situations where we do not belong.

Politically, the U.S. made the right decision by staying out of Egypt during its revolution. The citizens were ultimately successful in causing their president, Hosni Mubarak, to resign without any of our military support. Our moral support seemed to suffice, as it similarly would with the current situation in Libya.

However, as these revolutions become increasingly violent and even genocidal, the U.S. tends to feel an obligation as the world’s “big brother” to step in and mediate the brewing civil war. These notions, despite being good intentioned, are dangerous—we need to get out of the mindset that every country needs our assistance. Sending humanitarian aid to support the revolutionaries and the idea of democracy is all that the insurrectionists need anyway—not our military to help fight their battles for them.

“We need somebody to come to at least give us some things to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our children,” said a Libyan citizen in an interview with Anderson Cooper.

The Libyan citizens merely want our support and aid, since their fighting stems from a fiery passion for a democratic government and a disgust with their leader. If we sent our troops to help them, we would be in effect taking away from what the victory would mean to their country. Realistically, it wouldn’t help our country in any way either.