Indeed

Often it is said, why should America have any opinion or voice on what happens in Iraq, or anywhere around the world for that matter. It is sometimes tempting to think a) we can't make a difference and b) even if we could, it ain't none of our business. Let 'em do whatever they want to themselves...

But maybe it's because we've been there, too, and know the shame of being a nation that has committed awful atrocities and been party to our own horrific acts of violence and injustice that gives us the wisdom to say what's right and what's wrong.

The Civil War was largely about the South resisting change being imposed by Northern "occupiers." Some argued it was economic, some political, but in the eyes of history, it is a moral question - the question of slavery. That no man deserves to be a slave, and beyond that, no man is fit to be a master.

And what of Iraq? Is this a 21st century "civil" war, a war about the future of the globe? Because without a doubt, this is the century of globalization, shrinking national borders, shrinking of space and time, due to technology and information systems. In this shrinking world, is there no longer space for totalitarian regimes?

Is is a strategic question? Or is it a moral question? Or both?