To the Editor:

In regard to the editorial, “Getting This One Right” (The Hoya, A2, March 22, 2011), I believe there is a larger question to be raised concerning the humanitarian intervention in Libya.

One of the stated goals of the United Nations is to mitigate threats to “international peace and security,” which the U.N. deems to include, among other things, humanitarian concerns. As the sole superpower party to that system–a system that seeks to guard against unjust aggression, whether they be nation upon nation or ruler upon his people–we inevitable become its enforcer, its police officer.  How long can we sustain that role?  Should it even be the business of the U.N. to guard against humanitarian concerns?

If that should be the business of the U.N. (which it hasn’t always been), then we better be ready as a people to make more resource commitments to expeditions not necessary to our vital national interest.  If we are not ready as a people to make such commitments, then perhaps we should reevaluate the business of the U.N.

Justin Kirschner

COL ’11

March 22, 2011