The United States has the Bill of Rights but with facility engaged in inhumane punishment and sentencing without trial when faced with terrorism. We were not going to stand by and be goody two-shoes while international terrorists were picking us off like flies. In the end, we must expand the structure of peace founded upon human rights. The United Nations represents a symbolic attempt to do this. Symbols in the end cannot substitute for solid structure enforced by the police power of government. Concurrent with every world war we profess to be interested in such a structure, but end up only with the symbol–much as if the US Bill of Rights were professed in words only but were not backed up by the sword of the state. Would we not then be excused for our cynicism? War may not drive us to internationalism, but everyday facts surely will.
Nation states are anachronisms formed before international travel and communication, resources, and a sense of equality were widely shared. With greater translation ease, even language is a shrinking barrier; mainline religions are converging on a common core of values. When the brotherhood of man becomes more fact than lofty goal, international structures will coalesce with dispatch. It’s the natural thing to do as can be seen by the once appropriate accretion of nation states. Surely the current cynicism by US citizens regarding the government in the United States is one indication that in many ways nationalism is now inherently ineffectual. Structures must be created in which responsibilities can be realistically assigned and results realistically evaluated.
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