I was reading the news on Yahoo a couple of days ago, something I do occassionally but I rarely keep up with current world events. The current topic that attracted my attention was some article about whether the UN should intervene in Chechnya.

Now, from my very cursory reading, Russia has undertaken military action at suspected rebel targets in one of their republics. There have been some charges of genocide-type actions by Russian troops, although these are unconfirmed. The reasoning is that the UN intervened in Yogoslavia, so they should do the same here.

The difference here is that Russia is not some third-world country. They have nuclear weapons and a potent military force. Even then, this is an internal matter and not the business of the UN. If we start letting the UN interfere with a country's internal problems, then it'll be easier for them to interfere the next time.

Should one of our States try to secede from the Union, we would strike it down bloodily, and would resent UN interference. The UN is good for giving us legitimacy in interfering with lesser countries, but the big guys are strictly out of bounds. It's not in our best interests to support that kind of precedent.

On the other hand, we could, as a concerned country, try to pressure Russia to stop their strikes. But that would be a matter of one major power talking to another major power. That's been done before and will continue to be done. It's not something that may limit our options in the future.

As a world leader, we sometimes take it upon ourselves to help other countries. Usually there is a financial or political reason for this: the target country controls a resource we want (such as oil) or the target country opposes one of our enemies. But occassionally we do it because we're trying to make the world a better place.

I've been told by people in other countries that America can be quite condescending to lesser countries. We believe that since our mode of government and economy has worked so well here, it'll work everywhere and try to impose it on other countries for their own good. We mean well, but they don't like our interference, although we're fine people otherwise.

There have been periods of time when we have tried to promote Democracy and Capitalism in countries that didn't want it. And we've failed sometimes. Won't make us stop, because we do think we know what's best for everyone.

In any case, I leave foreign policy up to the President and Senate. Personally, I have enough trouble keeping up with my life. We elect our leaders to take care of these matters in our best interests. People who are concerned about such things will do what they can to change the world, whether as activism, letter writing, voting, donating money, whatever.

For me, I help where I can, in causes that I want to. Nothing Earth-shattering for me, but I think I do make a difference in my own way. Maybe it's true that one person can't change the world, but I'm not aiming that high.