In response to President Obama's Speech

In Response to President Obama’s speech – in essence, his “Call to Arms” of the American people…

In high school I remember Mr. Anderson trying to teach us world history and politics, learning about government, the Geneva Convention, and the various schools of thought on how different countries’ governments are run.  Throughout history we’ve seen the rise and fall of great nations, and yet out of tyranny and repression people rise stronger together than they had ever been before living under an iron fist.  And now, as a nation of great power, the United States is challenged by the actions of individuals in Syria; a country that was an original member of the United Nations, when it was formed in 1945. 

According to the United Nations' official webpage (www.un.org) the UN has 4 main purposes:

1. To keep peace through the world

2. To develop friendly relations among nations

3. To help nations work together to improve lives of poor people to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each others' rights and freedoms

4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

 And so I ask myself, what do other UN countries think of the United States involving themselves in the politics of another country?  Countries like China, Japan, Israel, and the United Kingdom don’t seem to be jumping at the bit to keep Syria in line.

And then I get to thinking about my upcoming Norway trip and the Norwegians general opinion of Americans.  Without the experience of living there and without the cultural knowledge or of what the political climate is there, I wonder what the people of Norway think about Americans in general; the American system of government (compared to their parliament), and why we, here in the United States, don’t tend to hear about the Scandinavian countries supporting the United States’ military efforts.

And then I think about how the choices that are being suggested mirror the current political climate of a nation who continues to rescue its own people again and again. When will we, as Americans and as a country, stop rescuing our citizens from the choices that they make or stop rescuing the nations of this world from breaking?  But then there is another question that comes to mind about the separation of church and state; and countries being defined as “Christian” or “Muslim”, or in the case of Syria, the country is run by Alawites (“ethnically Arab but follow a smaller branch of Islam” – whatever that means?!).

Thankfully, Max Fisher, someone far more educated in Middle Eastern politics than I am; wrote an article entitled “9 Questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask” that was published August 29 in The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/29/9-questions-about-syria-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/

And maybe the above reasons are why you don't talk about politics or religion unless you want a fiery debate!