You state your case well and its hard to disagree with any of your points. I guess you are saying that to be effective we have to make sure that everything is right in our own backyards. Forgive me for paraphrasing you in such a simplistic way.

However, while I take your point that we have to ensure our interventions do not contribute to the problem, I cannot agree that we should not all vigorosly oppose the arcane and evil practices of some societies that are "justified" by culture or religion and deny their citizens the most basic of human rights under their legal systems.

Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating any more US invasions in the name of freedom, oil, national interest or anything else.

We had better live as we think, otherwise we shall end up by thinking as we lived. - Paul Bourget