Re: Not begging the question

Post #70,305 by rcareaga 12/21/02 10:05:14 PM Reply	Re: Not begging the question //Is a political vacuum filled by international criminal gangs and Islamic fundamentalists better than brutal dictatorships and the ever-present danger of nuclear holocaust?// My point was, that is not the choice. Brezhnev's USSR was gone well before Gorbachev's USSR perished. Had Gorbachev succeeded in morphing the national entity he inherited into a civilized member of the international community--and remember that it's not to our moral advantage to regard the mere possession of genocidal-capable quantities of armaments as evidence of evil intent--would it not be preferable from the standpoint of our imperial maintenance of the status quo to have a fellow empire with a stake in the bipolar world? cordially, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
Post #70,312 by ben_tilly 12/21/02 10:37:56 PM Reply	I don't think that assumption of yours is right The nuclear holocaust scenario was a given as long as the USA and USSR remained facing each other. Certainly there were - and are - many in the USA who would make it politically unacceptable for us to reduce our armnament levels. As for dictatorships, Gorbachev tried to make changes. But he was working within an organization that was very repressive, with client governments that were even more so. Not to mention that many of the dictatorships that I was referring to were ours, not theirs. Cheers, Ben "Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly." - [link\|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html\|Walter Mead]
Post #70,313 by rcareaga 12/21/02 10:48:53 PM Reply	Re: I don't think that assumption of yours is right //The nuclear holocaust scenario was a given as long as the USA and USSR remained facing each other.// Not necessarily. Had the USA and USSR the wit and will to arrive at a rapprochment forty years ago we could by now have carved up the so-called Third World (deprived of the opportunity to play one superpower against another) like the Christmas roast, and be feasting on its resources uncontested to this day. Absent that ruinous rivalry a dimestore Stalin like Saddam Hussein would never have been suffered to arise. cordially, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
Post #70,315 by ben_tilly 12/21/02 10:57:19 PM Reply	Um, the US needs enemies It is politically convenient for those in charge to have a well-known and easily identified enemy for rhetorical purposes. Had it not been the USSR, it would be someone else. Just like Saddam Hussein and Al Queda have been volunteered to be now. Cheers, Ben "Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly." - [link\|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html\|Walter Mead]
Post #70,318 by rcareaga 12/21/02 11:04:48 PM 12/21/02 11:06:28 PM Reply	Re: Um, the US needs enemies But of course we need enemies! And why not choose these from among the many populations who are weak enough for us to exploit but not strong enough (absent a lapse in our vigilance) to present a serious threat? In other words, if one potential enemy has a zillion nuclear-tipped ICBMs and another can only muster, on a good day, half a dozen Boeing 757s, do you want to go for Door Number One or Door Number Two? cordially, "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist." Edited by rcareaga Dec. 21, 2002, 11:06:28 PM EST Expand All History
Post #70,325 by boxley 12/21/02 11:31:56 PM Reply	ya go for the one you can find example from our history, Indians scalp whites, whites try looking for rogue Indians. Cant find any so go to the reservation where they know there is Indians and massacree them. Black man rapes white women, we cant identify him so we know where to find black men. Conversely in the Raj days, a member of the watch goes into the market and drags a thief back to be tortured. He didnt do the specific crime but a lesson is learned after all. "Somebody Pays" thanx, bill will work for cash and other incentives [link\|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html\|skill set] You think that you can trust the government to look after your rights? ask an Indian
Post #70,343 by ben_tilly 12/22/02 2:39:58 AM Reply	Does this explain...? Why we are going after Iraq instead of Northern Korea? Cheers, Ben "Career politicians are inherently untrustworthy; if it spends its life buzzing around the outhouse, it\ufffds probably a fly." - [link\|http://www.nationalinterest.org/issues/58/Mead.html\|Walter Mead]
Post #70,344 by rcareaga 12/22/02 4:22:46 AM Reply	bingo! "Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."

Welcome to IWETHEY!