Unable to Avoid Criticism, U.S. Should Do the Right Thing

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal-Pioneer

The “Marines’ Hymn” is the official song of the United States Marine Corps. Many people, even in Canada, know the first stanza:

    From the Halls of Montezuma,
    To the shores of Tripoli;
    We fight our country’s battles
    In the air, on land, and sea;
   
    First to fight for right and freedom
    And to keep our honour clean:
    We are proud to claim the title
    Of United States Marine.

“From the Halls of Montezuma” refers to the Battle of Chapultepec that took place during the mid-19th century Mexican-American War.

A force of Marines stormed Chapultepec Castle, on the outskirts of Mexico City in 1847, where before had stood the Halls of Montezuma, named after an Aztec emperor.

The line “To the shores of Tripoli” relates to the First Barbary War, launched by the United States against pirates based in modern-day Libya who were harassing shipping in the Mediterranean.

In 1801, Tripoli’s pasha, Yusuf Karamanli, turned his pirates loose on American ships. President Thomas Jefferson dispatched America’s new navy to bombard Tripoli.

The 1805 Battle of Derna, in which U.S. General William Eaton and a contingent of Marines marched

500 miles across the desert and captured the eastern Libyan city of Derna, was the first recorded land battle of the United States on foreign soil. The Barbary states were eventually defeated.

Today, however, drug dealers roam freely in Mexico, and thousands of Mexicans have been killed in Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and other cities on the U.S.-Mexican border along the Rio Grande. More than 3,100 people were murdered in Juárez last year and the murder rate has not slowed in 2011, with more than 350 homicides reported by the end of February.

In fact the United States can’t even protect its own frontier along the Sonoran Desert against human smugglers.

As for Tripoli, now the capital of Libya, President Barack Obama has looked weak, hesitant, and politically impotent, as Moammar Gadhafi butchered thousands of his own people.

“People who don’t love me don’t deserve to live,” Gadhafi told supporters.

Yet it took a full week, after television screens across the world broadcast images of protesters being mowed down by heavy weaponry, for Obama to explicitly call for the dictator’s removal.

The usually more cautious European Union was far ahead of Washington in making it clear to Gadhafi that he would face economic and judicial consequences for his crimes.

Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century famously recommended that America should “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Obama’s voice has barely risen above a whisper in this crisis, but while he has a military that could oust Gadhafi in a New York minute, he clearly has no plans to use it.

He opposes unilateral action – yet the UN Security Council took more than a week to even impose an

arms embargo against the Libyan government and a travel ban and asset freeze against Gadhafi, his relatives and key members of his government.

It also called for the referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for possible prosecution of anyone responsible for killing civilians.

Libya’s deputy ambassador to the UN had formally requested that the Security Council order a no-fly zone over his own country to stop the Libyan government from bombing and strafing its own people, but the council rejected his request.

Also, Libya has been suspended from the UN Human Rights Council, to which it was – shamefully – elected last year.

Even that took some doing, as some Latin American countries, Asian and African nations were wary of setting a precedent that can be used against them in the future.

Obama, it should be recalled, was equally tepid in his response to the Iranian reform movement, when it challenged the rigged presidential election in 2009 that allowed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to remain in power.

The president has also done little to deter modern-day Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, who have been capturing ships and killing Americans.

After all, there’s world public opinion to consider. But the pirates have been getting bolder. More than 50 vessels are now held captive, with more than 800 hostages.

When America intervenes in a country to save lives, it’s criticized as being imperialist; when it doesn’t, it’s accused of being indifferent to human suffering.

It seems to be, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So, might as well do what’s right, Mister President.

Otherwise, maybe the Marines’ song should be retired.