Why aren't We Nicer and should America Make Us?

I was browsing through the home page of the New York Times and found one of the first articles to be about Somalia, a topic that has lost much media coverage in the past decade or so.  What most know about Somalia, however, still remains.  It's still horrifically violent, impoverished, and conflicted, but with a major change.  The African Union has been sending troops into Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, to officially wipe out the heinous militant group known as the Shabab.  The article says that they are making strides to killing off the Shabab, who have been wreaking havoc in Somalia as far back as the U.S.'s peacekeeping attempt known as Black Hawk Down in 1993.  At the end of the article, though, the author poses an interesting and painfully true question.  He writes, "What will these African Union sacrifices amount to?  All peacekeeping experts say the same thing: that peacekeepers are a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, a way to buy time until a political process takes hold and alleviates the cause of the conflict."  

Somalia is a typical case of foreign conflict where a terribly corrupt government offers little hope at the end of the tunnel once the violence ceases.  What I've always thought to myself was, don't these militants and corrupt government officials see the pain and suffering felt by the masses in Somalia.  Where is the empathy that humans feel simply because we are all connected?  My teacher's daughter actually gave a presentation to our American Studies class about the civil war in Uganda where she touched upon this exact idea.

Some would say that the times overall have actually gotten better in terms of how people treat each other.  Coincidentally, on the same New York Times home page, I stumbled upon an opinion titled, "Are We Getting Nicer?"  The writer says, "Wars make headlines, but there are fewer conflicts today, and they typically don't kill as many people."  He also gives a number of specific examples on how we have become less violent as a human race since ancient times.  This argument definitely has basis because right after reading the opinion I realized how instead of watching people kill each other in gladiatorial death matches for fun, we watch football and hope nobody gets unintentionally injured. 

This is strictly an overall theory, though.  Atrocities still occur, people still kill, and violence still exists.  But the question is why?  And why does America often find itself stepping in to right wrongs?  Is it our responsibility due to how many would argue we are what John Winthrop called, "the shining beacon on a hill" whose beacon light as Reagan said, "guides freedom-loving people everywhere."?