When oppressed people around the world cry out for help, what can we do?

Fighting is usually not a good way to improve the human condition. Since WWII, the US has tried using war as a tool to liberate people from oppression. The plans seem to fail most of the time.

While most Americans have a certain amount of human rights, parts of the world are enslaved in authoritarian regimes like in Iran. There may be better ways through foreign aid, education and communication, such as the availability of internet access, to melt oppression. Military intervention seems to seldom work.

In our collective memory is the liberation of Germany and Japan after our victory in WWII. Since then, our attempts to repeat that have not been that successful. Our second invasion of Iraq to "liberate" the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein brought chaos and continued autocracy. I fear that bombing Iran may not help the people overcome that theocracy.

Often people do look to the US for help, however. In the 1990s, there was an intertribal genocide in Rwanda. I remember hearing about that in the news. We mostly stayed out of that and many people died. In other cases, we have tried to intervene, especially if world oil supply and economic interests are in question.

Are there good strategies for promoting democracy around the world?

We are certainly affected by the lack of democracy in other countries as many folks, trying to escape oppression, come knocking on our borders as well as the borders of most democracies, such as Canada and UK. The recent reaction, in many democracies, is to tighten borders; especially when world migration becomes overwhelming to our infrastructure.

Is there enough housing? Is there enough water in the drought stricken Colorado River to meet the need of growing population in that area? One thing we don't hear much about now is the drought in much of Iran. Climate change and local mismanagement, by Iranian authorities, has created a water crisis. Could innovative ways to address these problems help more than going to war?

Even here at home, mismanagement of our economy is evident. We have a president who wants to rededicate USA to fossil fuels. The world may be turning more violent and authoritarian, rather than smarter in addressing the changes that we need for a better and more sustainable future.