Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainNJ
yeah? those people are hopping on planes to Nigeria to help find those girls?
or are those people supporting spending other people's money to help those girls?
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I'll be honest; it is the latter. And I fully acknowlege that there *are* limits to US power, especially in this bad economy, and putting our boys (and increasingly our girls) in uniform into harm's way is something that should never be undertaken lightly.
However, if (and yes, this may be a big if) this rescue of the enslaved girls (and the killing of the savages who did it) is something that a company of marines in helicopters from a carrier offshore could quickly fly in, achieve, and fly out, is that not "a global force for good", as the navy recruitment ads say?
I am reminded of Kipling's old poem. The term "White Man's Burden" is taboo today, but given the numbers of Asian and Latin American nations that are also modern and civilized and treat women decently, perhaps we should rename it "The Modern Burden"???
And don't you know that many of the same people who want us to "do something" here, will in another breath condemn us for "imperialism"???? Ugh.
Rewriting Kipling's poem for the 21st century:
Take up the Modern burden, Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your kids to exile, to serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, Muslim peoples, Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the Modern burden, In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror, And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple, A hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit, And work another's gain.
Take up the Modern burden, The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine, And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest, The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and Muslim Folly, Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the Modern burden, No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper, The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living, And mark them with your dead.
Take up the Modern burden, And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour, (Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage, Our loved Islamic night?"
Take up the Modern burden, Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom, To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper, By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples, Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the Modern burden, Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood, through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers!
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. I think we should sit down at the peace table with the man behind this group to understand his grievances. He was probably a victim of the West and just needs to be understood. 
