Politics: Creating An Unsafe World

President Wilson entered World War I to make thefrom its neighbors.Instead, the greatest superpower in
world "Safe for democracy." The rise of the Fasciststhe world shunned continued diplomacy and invaded.
and World War II shattered his dream and the hopesThe same dream of creating peace and democracy
of civilization that cataclysmic upheavals could bewas verbalized at every opportunity. The lessons of
forever avoided. The long Cold War created a perilousunrestrained aggression and ignoring ethnic/religious
world where major powers jockeyed for control withdiversity, first learned centuries ago in ill-fated crusades,
the threat of weapons that could destroy every livingwere ignored. When you know you're right, it's hard to
thing on earth. The fear of communism exerting aconcede that everyone else isn't wrong.What have
domino effect on small poverty-stricken countries ledwe created -- a more unstable, troubled, and
to the quagmire of Vietnam and the embarrassmentviolence-prone world; an earth that shudders at the
of the Contra affair.With the demise of the Sovietarmed convulsions racing across its brittle, fragile
Union, the world breathed easier, believing that, at last,surface. As new fires flare across the entire Middle
human efforts could concentrate on growth, spaceEast, we hear rumors that an attack on Iran is in the
exploration, and scientific advance, rather thanplanning stages. From the world's model of a
pressuring its greatest minds into developing newdemocracy forged out of the wilderness and
means of destruction.Throughout history, there haverenowned for its desire for peace, prosperity, and
always been regional conflicts, ethnic discord, andhumanity, we have become the hated face of the
religious clashes. The super powers of each era haveenemy, an imperialistic throwback to the 19th Century.
eventually stepped in and calmed the storms throughWe have become the all-powerful but hated Rome of
diplomacy, cultural pressure, or an armed presence.Iraqthe ancient world.Despite its grandeur, Rome fell. Not to
was undoubtedly a crude, cruel, despotic regime underanother superpower, but to the ceaseless raids of
Saddam, killing its own citizens, brutalizing anduncivilized savages who used their own brand of
maltreating its minorities, and rattling defiant sabers at aviolence to defeat a culture that knew only violence to
world that failed to grant it the dignity and respect it feltmaintain itself and made no effort towards exploring
it deserved. Its value to the world defined primarily bypeaceful options.Are we doomed to repeat the
the black gold pooled beneath its deserts, it was onepast?Virginia Bola is a licensed clinical psychologist with
more unsettled region like Rwanda, Liberia, or Somalia.deep interests in Social Psychology and politics. She
It demanded the same kind of response: unwaveringhas performed therapeutic services for more than 20
political efforts to assert human rights, economicyears and has studied the effects of cultural forces
pressure from the world community and condemnationand employment on the individual.