Lately, it seems, America just cannot leave well enough alone. We have had a long history of intervention, and most of it was not only unnecessary, but stupid. In 1945, the U.S. was one of the principal backers of the United Nations. Yet, in the United Nations charter, one of the inalienable rights set out for a sovereign country was that of self-determination. The U.S. has run roughshod over this concept in the name of democracy. The invasion of Panama was just one small representation of that. The CIA openly admits hav-ing at least 5 operatives in every country around the globe, including such hot-beds of international intrigue as the Comoros Islands and Mauritius. The U.S. simply hasn't learned to leave well enough alone. After we lost Vietnam, we had to go and topple the democratically elected government of Chile, because the president was a Marxist. We have a tentacle in every country in the world, trying to turn them all into our little slaves, like we tried to do in Nicaragua with the Somozas, in Panama with Noriega and in the Philippines with Marcos. We have failed, we are failing and we will fail, so why do we do it? The Soviets have had no better luck than we have, so why do we fight so much? There is no reason other than national ego.n