Once again Ben Friedman has proved he is incapable of seeing the bigger picture. His article titled “America still the greatest”, despite being poorly written and never proving any point, is filled with several glaringly inaccurate statements. It seems as though Friedman has no idea about America’s involvement in either international or domestic affairs.

For starters, the United States did not enter WWII to teach Hitler the error of his ways nor to police Europe. In fact, Roosevelt felt that Germany was a superior military force and had the tactical advantage. Many Americans were also extremely cautious of fighting a war they felt was not their own—keeping in mind that Jewish people were still somewhat treated as second-class citizens even in the United States.

America entered the war on Dec. 8, 1941—a day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt declared war on Japan, and three days later Italy and Germany declared war on the United States. I do not know where Friedman draws such “confidence” that America was going to enter a war it had successfully avoided for almost three years without the attack on Pearl Harbor.

America cannot and must not take on the mantle of policing the world while we still have so many problems on the home front. We should put our money to work at home before abroad. While I do think that we as Americans cannot allow human rights violations to go unpunished, we must be wise in picking our battles. Democracy is one of the most difficult systems of government to run and some nations simply are not ready to accept it just yet. We should respect their sovereignty.

We should not bring our own cultural bias to the debates either. Sweatshops and child labor are the only means of income for millions of families worldwide and should not be immediately condemned. What would you have them do, Ben? Starve? Steal?  In “The Dark Knight,” when Bruce asks Alfred what to do in light of all the destruction and death brought by the Joker, he replies, “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it.” We must choose our battles wisely and sometimes we must endure the moral hardships in one battle to win the war later.

Ross Owens is a junior majoring in anthropology and German.