the way it seems to me, to be, is that we lose either way.

if we focus on our own problems, we're not doing enough because we're selfish. we're ignoring the plight of others.

if we do send help/aid/whatever, we're sticking our noses where it doesn't belong and/or we're doing it for our own special interests.

the US basically always does it wrong in every way according to every non-American.

like my wife's uncle... when we were in europe last october, i was talking to him about the state of the economy, the housing crisis, the banks, all that mumbo jumbo. he was preaching to me about how the US has to do things. how we're going socialist and that's how it has to be, it's the only way. capitalism is crap. yay socialism and so on. mind you, he's worked for an american company for at least all of his adult life, been paid in american dollars, and lives in basically a mansion compared to everyone else around him, which what the people around him live in could be considered shacks by some people's standards. in other words, capitalism gave him what he has, but it's crap, and yay socialism.