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Article: Americans abroad: when good intentions go awry.
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- June 4, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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I think every columnist must share the "Isn't-this-where-I-came in?" syndrome. As the years pass some topics resurface again and again in slightly different guise. Just now experts and pundits on the talk shows and the op-ed pages are taking second looks at American foreign policy initiatives.
Do the unintended consequences of our efforts to "help" suggest that we should not have helped at all? Was the problem solving itself in Somalia without our help anyway? If we had acted more decisively a year-and-a-half ago, would we have deterred the Serbs? Did our intervention in Iraq do more harm than good?
It is almost twenty years since I pondered problems ...