Raymond, you take an unduly negative view of occupation and Colinization. Americans have a distorted view because of their Independence Day prejudices and Declaration of Independence from the Evil King George. Now they have their own King George II, they'll rediscover the verities of cultural impetus and tribal exuberance when meeting with stone age superstitious people.
The British did some excellent colonizing and to the great benefit of the colonized, though it's now fashionable to deny the benefits. Most of the occupied of the time understood the gains to be made, just as they do now.
British occupation [of recent centuries] wasn't done in the way of the Spanish conquistadores or Maori superseding the blokes in a neighouring tribe, or the Japanese in Nanking though subjugation was common enough to show that the difference was minimal.
Maoris of various tribes encouraged immigration and eventually colonization. That's because they saw benefits to the English coming here. Maoris early on got on the ships to go and see what the heck was up back at Blighty. They could understand the cash flow possibilities and strategic ideas. So, they joined with the British, sold some land in exchange for muskets, took gainful employment, then used that power to make mayhem for other less-favoured tribes, replacing the land they sold to the English by force of arms against other tribes. Muskets versus meres [stone clubs] and taiaha [wooden spears] were quite impressive and Maoris rapidly got the hang of killing off the other Maoris.
Victory leads to girls, fish, forest, lebensraum not to mention quite a bit of fun firing muskets at the enemy wielding meres.
The British, contrary to popular American myth, invented ethics while American barbarian pioneers were still murdering Redskins. So they found it all a bit icky and were keen to introduce civilization. So they said "Look, you guys are carving each other up. It's mayhem. Let's all be Poms together, you keep all your stuff and you chiefs get to stay the boss, but parliament makes the overall rules, which includes no murdering, stealing and mayhem. Then we can all get rich."
Well, Maori chiefs soon figured that was sensible enough, so they signed on the dotted line. Let's face it, if everyone else signed and you didn't, the neighbouring chiefs might think they could just move in to take over, which they probably could do. Not all signed nevertheless. So it was a bit of a mess for a long time, right up to now in fact because the government sometimes broke their own rules about land [Public Works Act confiscations, which normal humans have to put up with, don't apply to tribal Chiefly Maori land].
Fast forward to now and we are being occupied by Asian hordes. Heck, one of them was in our house last night, being the descendant of a young man who swam for freedom to another British Colony, from the clutches of Mao, around 1970. It took several swimming attempts to escape. Our son is fluent in Japanese, which is handy since they have got a big pile of money. We are the modern Maoris, being occupied by those with the numbers and the money. We learn their language, adopt their cultural norms, soon we'll be obeying their laws as they take over.
We like it for the same reason the Maoris did when the English came. Cash flow and opportunity. Colonizing isn't the Maori style whereby the colonized males are enslaved, killed, eaten and otherwise subjugated [young male children can be tribally-trained so some of them escape] and the women soon learn to love the victors.
So it'll be with Americans colonizing Iraq. Americans have ethics, though not as robust as the genteel form of Mill and co: utilitarianism.com as USA ethics seem more based on egoism than utilitarianism meaning those who don't share the USA identity might have happiness and pain but it's irrelevant to the real world of Americans. Iraq will be occupied on an ethical basis [for the most part, the likes of Lt William Calley notwithstanding]. Most Iraqis will benefit [probably 90%] and they'll know that they aren't going to be turned into dog food or hangi fodder. They'll be in a queue for jobs in the new administration, judicial and security forces not to mention the construction industry.
Colonizing Iraq is a good thing. It's an excellent crusade. Uday is at the core of the Matrix of Malevolence. It was 2000 years ago that the Christians had their idol murdered. Well, the Christians are marching back into town, bearing alms.
The aim of war isn't really to kill a horde of people [though a lot of people would be disappointed if that didn't happen]. It's to get the others to accept defeat. Ideally, without any icky mess. Democracy is good like that. We have a civil conflict every few years and the electoral losers simply take a few Ws off the keyboards, write a bit of graffiti and move out, making way for the victors.
Handled right, Saddam can be replaced without a shot being fired. Maybe not even one for him or from him.
Then, we can all get back to Peace, Light, Harmony, Love, Happiness, Health and Prosperity.
I have spake. So it shall be.
Mqurice |
