Terror, Babies and Subterfuge

    What if?
         Atrocities against the innocents have been going on for a long time. The world is well aware;  several Popes have called for awareness and aid and compassion for the innocent victims of all ages.  There have been celebrities who have traveled to the saddest war-torn places on earth and, like John Kennedy Jr. and others, have attempted to use their public voices to draw attention to the horrors of war and terroristic tactics.  Groups such as Doctors Without Borders have risked their lives attempting to relieve the suffering of some of the victims.
    Most of us fortunate ones somehow live our lives not unaware of, but necessarily oblivious to, how terribly unfair life is.   We go out to dinner, buy stuff we don't need, play sports, discard perfectly good things, accompany our kids to extracurricular activities, and, oh, the cruises people take, and the elaborate golf courses.  All the while we know that people, yes, people with babies---babies--- are starving and dying from assaults by one rabid group or another. We know it, hate it (when we have the opportunity), but what else are we to do.  We have to live our own lives.
     Last week, I watched a British reporter's interview of a woman in Sudan, where thousands and thousands are starving.  The woman was lying under a tree, alone but for a newborn baby she was holding to her chest, trying to nurse it from her famished body.  Her husband and children had been slaughtered before her eyes, and her house burned down.  She had nothing, but on her search to find some sustenance, she had given birth in the bushes  along the way. She had followed along the path of others who had fled before her, and finally caught up with where they were encamped. They would not accept her, as they were also starving and would accept no newcomers, She looked close to death, and her baby depended on her alone.  I could only hope the reporter could offer her some hope, but there were all those others...
   If I were in a position of power, could I justify eradicating those who caused the suffering in the Sudan? Possibly, but there are so many others, too many others. We can't help them all, can we?  No, but if I had enough power, I could select a certain area to exert that power.  Maybe the area where aside from being a generous and life-saving savior, I could incidentally and egregiously help my own cause.
   So could this be true on the national scale?  Is it possible that the devastating and forbidden chemical attack, which did indeed take the lives of innocent children, came as a surprise to a man in his 70's?  Could he not possibly have realized the condition of the world. But if the attack were supported by a country with whom he had been accused of being too close to, and the  launching  of a punitive attack would diffuse that charge, may that not be an effective way to look like an outraged human being and help oneself at the same time.
   In light of all the high stakes interactions and the resultant investigations and accusations between countries, could it be impossible to rule out the complicity of the other country as well?  People are duped all the time, even smart people.