Sure we need reasons, and quite desperately, to support our pretension of being a reasoning species, and thusly evade your monkey analogy .... although they are very advanced in some ways, for instance chimpanzees will fling their shit to send a message, or just for fun, and they've learned to do this even without talk radio and the internet ... but man is stuck with this deep need to hear words appearing coherently strung together in making a case for or against the war du jour, just look at the various warmonger and peacenik threads right here on SI, the fervour in the typing, the heads banged against keyboards, the cybershit flung ... messier and less beneficial to the flowers than the chimpanzee method certainly, but it keeps a lot of people off the street too
'For nearly a year, Iraq has been the centerpiece of U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy. There were multiple reasons for this obsession, but in the end, Bush created a situation in which Iraq became the measure of his administration.
However, over the extraordinarily long run-up to a decisive confrontation with Baghdad, massive, global opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq has emerged on both the public and state levels. Creating the sort of coalition that the United States enjoyed in 1991 has become impossible. This war, if it comes, will be fought in the face of broad opposition. The question now has arisen as to whether the United States would back away from war in the face of this opposition. Our analysis is that, at this point in history, the United States has few choices left: The constraints that now surround U.S. policy indicate that Washington will have to choose war.'
investorshub.com
So there's a reason right there - 'We said we were gonna, so we gotta.'
From your post - 'In time the invaded get control of their society again, with all attendant cultural changes, but they now think of themselves as the invaders.'
Yes ... there are full-blooded mayas who will tell you of the difficulties their ancestors had kicking the moros back out of Spain .... no kidding, and it's more than a thing of identifying with the language or of confusion of history through limited knowledge, it's a definite conscious association .... as indians make the cultural transition to becoming mexicanos and thusly having cultural roots on two continents, they feel those roots as blood ties .... of course in many there is spanish and other blood, but in many others no evidence of it at all ... doesn't depend on that, it's a thing of identifying, of being of La Raza, of both submitting to the european form of land tenure and of taking control of their own life to the extent possible
Mexicanos are probably ninety-nine per cent opposed to the whole idea of one nation invading another, for obvious historical reasons, the occupation of the north was hugely traumatic and set the tone for all future foreign policy .... the military is prohibited under the constitution from passing beyond the borders for any reason whatsoever .... meantime México is on the security council right now, and the bushistas are leaning on them hard to rubber-stamp an invasion of somebody else .... prescription for an active internal debate in el DF, for sure ... Casteñada the foreign ministre quit over it already, found it hopeless
I'd like to see stronger ties between Canada and México ... and Denmark, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland, etc .... when you're dealing with an eight hundred pound gorilla you need a lot of chimpanzees together |
