ddw, you ask if those of us who are concerned with human rights protested Saddam's gassing of Kurds and Iranians way back when, and someone else asked if we supported intervention in Rwanda and the Balkans.

I can only speak for myself, but yes... I did protest what Saddam did to the Kurds and Iranians, and especially the fact that the US was partially responsible for it. I protested the support the US gave to Iraq while Saddam was gassing Iranians, and I protested the fact that the US abandoned the Kurds when they needed our help the most.

I didn't know about Rwanda until it was too late, because I didn't have access to any news sources during that time, but I did support Clinton's decision to intervene in the Balkans. (At the time. These days, with what I know about the situation now, I'm not so sure his motives were humanitarian.)

Those of us who support human rights don't just do it as an excuss to push an agenda (that usually has no relationship whatever to human rights) down the throats of an unsuspecting public the way the US government does. We actually really care about human rights, and about human suffering.