My short answer is that I really don't believe that we take these conflicts and these frictions at the level of seriousness that they are. These are human beings like us, and they're being destroyed and abused by the hundreds of thousands and by the millions. We're seeing it. They're just like us. If a nation is imploding and we have the capability to influence it.... We have the responsibility to protect doctrine that we brought to the UN in 2005, and it says that if there are massive abuses of human rights in a country by the government, or if the government can't stop it, we have the responsibility to go in and protect the civilians—not change the regime, but protect the civilians.
Our fear of operationalizing and of committing to humanitarian missions—be it fear of casualties or fear of making a mistake—is holding back the ability to move these countries forward. They're screaming to move forward, but there's no way they can do it alone, unless countries like ours—middle powers—can take a leadership role, and I mean a real leadership role, not just going in with a couple of diplomats. Get in there with big guns.
I don't literally mean big guns. I mean ministers. Gee, I have to watch it. I'm an ex-soldier.
Thank you.