Trying to set a "responsibility to protect" for ourselves, in the sense that this term is generally used--that is, basic world police stuff--is dumb in the extreme, less in terms of the actual actions that fall under this umbrella than in the overall context. Responsibility To Protect? How about, first, a Responsibility To Not Hork Things Up Completely Because We See An Immediate Benefit And Don't Give Much Though To The Long Term. How about acting on our principles more often, so that we're not faced with a choice between supporting a genuine democratic movement and supporting the dictatorship which we set up that they're revolting against!

I recognize it's not always that simple ("never" is, after all, a set of "not always"). But we can try a lot harder to do no harm before we set about trying to actively right perceived wrongs.